UC-NRLF 


*B    17    3flS 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 


Class 


M 


WESTERN  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 


Educational  Agriculture, 


BY 


JOSIAHJMA1N, 


(  B.  S.  in  Agriculture, 


Lin  Education.) 


DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURAL  EDUCATION, 

WESTERN  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL, 

HAYS,  KANSAS. 


Vol.  II,  No.  3. 

Issued  Quarterly  by  the  Western  State  Normal  School. 


HAYS,  KANSAS. 
September,  1910. 


Entered  March  23,  1909,  at  Hays.  Kansas,  as  second-class  matter, 
under  act  of  July  16.  1894. 


M2> 


Copyright,  1910,  by  Josiah  Main. 


All  rights  reserved. 


•    •  '•  i 


(Compitmntts  of 

(Sift  Airtlpir 


Foreword. 


The  following  discussion  was  prepared  with  a  conviction 
that  the  field  of  high-school  agriculture  is  at  the  present  time 
the  most  important  division  of  the  subject  of  agricultural 
education,  because  the  proper  fixing  of  the  upper  and  lower 
limits  of  that  division  will  largely  determine  the  work  of  the 
elementary  and  higher  institutions.  The  fixing  of  these  limits 
must  be  after  a  pretty  full  discussion,  which,  it  is  hoped,  will 
excuse  the  length  of  what  is  here  presented.  But  the  chief 
merit  claimed  for  this  treatment  is  not  that  it  solves  the  prob- 
lem of  secondary  agriculture,  but  that  it  breaks  the  subject 
into  logical  units,  each  of  which  may  be  dealt  with  separately. 

In  reverting  to  psychology  for  a  solution  of  the  problem,  the 
writer  believes  he  has  made  clear  the  fact  that  he  is  not  a 
psychologist.  The  aim  was  to  challenge  the  so-called  "science 
of  education"  to  justify  its  existence  by  the  performance  of  a 
useful,  and  at  present  much-needed,  service. 

Having  resolved  the  discussion  into  a  treatment  of  second- 
ary agriculture,  it  should  be  explained  that  the  school  in  mind 
is  not  an  agricultural  school  in  any  sense  or  degree  other  than 
that  in  which  any  high  school  with  a  rural  environment  or  a 
rural  constituency  should  be  agricultural.  The  vocation  of 
agriculture  should  be  represented  in  the  education  of  every 
young  person  so  conditioned,  and  the  advantage  of  such  a 
training  is  greatest  with  the  youth  who  comes  daily  from  a 
farm  where  diversified  agriculture  is  practiced  and  a  commu- 
nity far  enough  removed  from  urban  influences  to  be  compelled 
to  supply  most  of  its  avocations  and  pleasures — a  condition 
in  which  rural  life  is  not  simply  tolerated  but  cherished  for  its 
own  sake.    This  is  regarded  as  a  great  civic  problem. 

The  diversified  character  of  the  contents  is  such  as  should 
appeal  to  the  pedagogue,  the  legislator  and  the  administrator 
of  school  affairs,  and  the  school  patron.  But  the  layman  may 
find  it  most  satisfactory  to  read  the  discussion  backward  from 
the  last  page  toward  the  first  as  far  as  his  interest  may  con- 
tinue. Josiah  Main. 

Hays,  Kan.,  September  12,  1910. 

228263 


4  Western  State  Normal. 

If  pedagogy  or  education  is  to  be  permanently  ranked  among  the 
sciences  it  must  find  data  in  addition  to  that  furnished  by  cultural  im- 
peratives and  psychological  investigations. — Carlton:  Education  and 
Industrial  Evolution,  p.  18. 

No  study  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  our  program  which  has  not  com- 
manded the  full  devotion  of  some  master  mind.  All  students  must  be 
introduced  to  the  same  civilization,  and  since  all  are  human,  their  sev- 
eral ways  of  approaching  it  will  not  be  fundamentally  different. — E.  E. 
Brown:    The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  440. 

The  accustomed  methods  of  education  are  less  applicable  to  the 
farmers  than  to  any  other  people.  .  .  .  The  greatest  of  the  unsolved 
problems  of  education  is  how  to  reach  the  farmer.  He  must  be  reached 
on  his  own  ground.  .  .  .  We  have  failed  to  reach  the  farmer  effect- 
ively because  we  still  persist  in  employing  old-time  and  academic 
methods. — Bailey:    The  Nature-study  Idea,  p.  62. 

New  and  fundamental  concepts  regarding  educational  principles  are 
now  needed  which  square  with  centralized  and  systematized  industry, 
subdivision  of  labor,  large  urban  populations,  increase  in  the  number  of 
laboring  population,  the  growth  of  organized  labor,  dissimilar  popula- 
tions, enlarged  governmental  activities,  and  a  democratic  form  of  govern- 
ment. When  our  public-school  system  was  devised  only  one  of  these  con- 
ditions— the  latter  one — was  in  existence. — Carlton:  Education  and 
Industrial  Evolution,  p.  13. 

Experience  in  teaching,  covering  several  years  in  graded-school  work, 
in  an  academy,  and  in  a  normal  school,  leads  to  the  conviction  that  no 
subject  requires  more  sound  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  pedagogy 
than  does  the  subject  of  agriculture. — Abbey:  Normal  School  Instruc- 
tion in  Agriculture  (O.  E.  S.  Circular  90,  p.  9). 

The  training  of  teachers  for  the  group  of  subjects  embraced  under 
the  term  "agriculture"  cannot  be  isolated  from  other  training.  It  is  not 
alone  a  question  of  giving  the  teachers  the  necessary  technical  knowl- 
edge and  skill  in  agricultural  subjects,  but  also  of  providing  training  and 
experience  in  methods  of  teaching  and  in  developing  a  point  of  view  and 
a  right  estimate  of  education  in  general.  There  is  great  danger  in  the 
technical  teaching  of  agriculture,  even  though  it  be  well  taught,  if  the 
teacher  is  not  also  well  grounded  in  the  social  and  pedagogical  principles 
and  problems  involved  in  all  education;  and  any  such  irrelevant  or 
unrelated  teaching  will  in  the  end  react  disastrously  on  the  very  move- 
ment that  it  is  intended  to  promote. — Bailey:  On  the  Training  of  Per- 
sons to  Teach  Agriculture  in  the  Public  Schools,  p.  9. 

The  great  fault  and  failing  in  our  education  is  that  we  have  foolishly 
assumed  that  education  for  culture's  sake  would  necessarily  and  mechan- 
ically secure  efficiency,  and  when  it  did  not,  we  have  again  foolishly  and 
hastily  assumed  that  there  is  something  about  industrial  activity  that  is 
antagonistic  if  not  fatal  to  culture.  So  we  have  surrendered  the  in- 
dustrial people,  as  such,  to  a  hard  life  of  toil,  barren  of  the  better  things 
of  life,  hoping  only  to  deliver  as  many  as  possible  from  their  fate,  as 
brands  snatched  from  the  burning.  Refusing  to  be  delivered  over  in  this 
way,  the  industrial  people  are  proceeding  to  set  up  a  system  of  education 
of  their  own  over  against  the  old,  with  the  very  natural  but  fatal  defect 
of  sneering  at  culture,  surrendering  everything  to  present  needs.  It  is 
for  educators  to  come  to  the  rescue  and  put  something  of  culture  into 
industrial  training  or  else  to  graft  industrial  training  upon  our  school 
system,  producing  a  kind  of  education  adapted  to  turn  out  people  that 
are  both  efficient  and  cultured. — Davenport:  Education  for  Efficiencv 
p.  96.  " 


Contents. 


PART  I.    Introduction, 
chap.  PAGE 

I.    Limitations  of  the  field  as  a  realm  of  knowledge 7 

PART  II.    Organization. 

II.    Motives    19 

III.  Genetic  psychology  as  an  aid  in  organization 21 

IV.  The  kinesthetic  factor  in  apperception;  reaction  and  inhibi- 

tion    26 

V.    A  problem  in  adjustment;  position  of  the  various  sciences. ...  30 

VI.    Formal  discipline  and  its  transfer 34 

VII.    Humanistic  science,  applied  science,  and  agriculture 36 

VIII.    Agricultural  arts;  habit  vs.  judgment 39 

IX.    Collateral  or  extra-program  agriculture 41 

X.    The  seasonal  order  of  presentation 44 

XL    Other  correlated  subjects 46 

XII.    Retardation;   admission,  graduation  and  accrediting  of  stu- 
dents    47 

PART  III.    Equipment. 

XIII.  The  laboratory 51 

XIV.  Plots   and  grounds 61 

XV.    Agricultural  literature 65 


(5) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/educationalagricOOmainrich 


PART  I.— Introduction. 


Chapter  I. 

LIMITATIONS   OP  THE  FIELD  AS  A  REALM  OF   KNOWLEDGE. 

Limitations-  of  materials  used  in  nature  study,  science,  and  agricul- 
ture.— Nature  study  sets  itself  no  limitations  as  to  the  natural  materials 
which  it  shall  use,  so  long  as  they  are  in  their  natural  relations.  But 
little  legs  cannot  carry  students  of  the  nature-study  age  very  far  from 
home,  and  materials  sent  from  a  distance  have  the  defect  of  being  out  of 
their  natural  setting.  From  these  facts  it  results  that  nature  study  is 
environmental  and  its  materials  mainly  agricultural  with  suburban  or 
rural  pupils. 

Biology  sets  itself  no  limitations  as  to  the  organisms  it  shall  use,  so 
long  as  each  is  typical  of  its  class  and  so  long  as  each  class  is  properly, 
but  not  unduly,  represented.  Some  classes  are  necessarily  not  repre- 
sented locally  and  so  we  must  needs  send  to  Texas  for  scorpions  and  to 
Woods  Hole  for  starfishes.  However,  convenience  and  economy  as  well 
as  utilitarian  ideals  operate  to  make  biology  somewhat  environmental 
in  character  by  the  utilization  of  types  that  the  locality  furnishes. 

The  physical  sciences  acknowledge  no  local  obligations  from  the  the- 
oretical standpoint,  since  they  do  not  deal  with  objects  or  organisms  that 
have  any  relation  to  struggle,  selection,  survival,  or  environment.  But 
they  do  have  artificial  limitations  in  their  application  to  the  arts  and  in- 
dustries and  in  their  relative  ease  or  difficulty  of  demonstration.  To 
overcome  these  limitations  instructors  are  put  to  some  trouble  and  schools 
to  considerable  expense  in  order  to  demonstrate  processes  and  phenomena 
that  are  not  familiar  through  experiences  of  the  pupils.  However,  the 
increasing  applications  of  principles  of  chemistry  and  physics  in  every- 
day life,  and  the  desire  of  the  most  progressive  schoolmen  to  utilize  in 
the  laboratory  those  principles  which  the  pupil  may  find  operating  in  his 
environment,  are  making  the  physical  sciences  more  and  more  environ- 
mental, as  witness  the  omission  of  that  phase  of  physics  included  under 
the  name  of  astronomy  from  the  high-school  courses  of  to-day. 

Agriculture  itself  sets  as  a  limitation  the  requirement  that  in  the 
choice  of  materials  and  processes  only  those  having  economic  importance 
for  good  or  evil  shall  be  studied.  But  the  rapid  development  of  the  sci- 
ence and  the  increasing  utilization  of  species  and  principles  which  a 
former  generation  would  never  have  thought  of  as  having  any  agri- 
cultural significance  compel  the  student  of  agriculture,  in  anticipation 
of  his  future  needs,  to  consider,  more  and  more,  matters  which  belong  to 
the  broader  fields  of  science. 

The  result  of  these  separate  tendencies  in  the  separate  fields  of  nature 
study,  agriculture  and  general  science  is  to  unify  these  subjects,  and 

(7) 


8  ...  Wester^  (  State  Normal. 

unification  in  education  always  means  economy.  This  unification  does 
not  apply  to  the  ideals  of  these  subjects.  In  fact,  the  closer  they  are 
brought  together  the  more  determined  are  the  sponsors  for  each  that 
their  separate  ideals  shall  be  preserved  inviolate  and  uncompromised. 
And  this  is  right;  nature  study  should  be  strictly  cultural,  agriculture 
strictly  economic,  and  science  strictly  scientific.  The  value  of  each  de- 
pends upon  its  maintaining  its  peculiar  virtue.  On  this  proposition  each 
of  the  interests  "stands  pat,"  whatever  it  may  demand  of  the  others. 
Therefore,  whatever  advantage  of  unity  education  may  expect  of  them 
should  be  on  the  basis  of  their  community  of  interests — the  common 
stock  of  materials  with  which  they  are,  or  should  be,  concerned. 

The  true  relation  of  nature  study,  science  and  agriculture. — In  the 
previous  development  of  this  nature  group  of  subjects  and  their  peda- 
gogical location  in  the  course,  a  linear  relation  of  them  in  the  order 
cultural,  economic,  and  scientific,  has  been  given,  because,  genetically, 
they  succeed  one  another  in  that  order  in  individual  development,  and  this 
dictates  the  order  of  their  presentation  in  the  schools.  Culture  pertains 
to  the  past,  economy  belongs  to  the  present,  and  science  faces  the  future. 
Whatever  the  dictionary  may  say,  the  words  carry  that  significance.  Ad- 
mitting it  does  not  mean  that  there  is  any  legitimate  way  of  putting 
culture  behind  one,  other  than  by  experiencing  it,  nor  that  all  of  the 
science  of  the  future  will  always  remain  in  the  future.  So  we  put  nature 
study  and  the  school  garden,  which  belong  to  the  cultura.1  past,  in  the 
primary  and  intermediate  grades.  We  consider  agriculture,  as  it  is  prac- 
ticed in  the  economic  present,  in  the  grammar  grades,  and  science  in  the 
scientific  future  for  which  the  high  school  prepares.  How  then  may 
unity  be  gotten  into  a  matter  that  is  so  marked  off  and  distributed? 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  going  from  the  nature-study  stage  of  the  lower 
grades  to  the  agricultural  stage  of  the  grammar  grades  we  do  not  go  to 

Before  the  sixth  grade,  or  its  equivalent,  there  should  probably  be  no 
agriculture  as  such.  Generalized  nature  study  should  here  control  the 
work.  This  will  underlie  and  prepare  for  all  future  work.  It  will  be  a 
mistake  to  try  to  force  formal  technical  agricultural  work  in  any  grade 
below  the  high  school. — Bailey:  On  the  Training  of  Persons  to  Teach 
Agriculture,  etc.,  p.  14. 

After  the  explicit  nature  study  ceases  with  the  fifth  grade,  the  pupil 
in  the  rural  school  may  then  be  taken  through  the  elements  of  agri- 
culture in  the  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  The  work  in  these  three 
grades  should  really  be  nature  study,  but  agricultural  subjects  are  the 
means.  Some  will  prefer  to  call  it  nature  study  rather  than  agriculture. 
Its  purpose  is  not  so  much  to  teach  definite  science  as  to  bring  the  pupil 
into  relation  with  the  objects  and  affairs  that  are  concerned  with  the 
agriculture  of  his  region.  When  the  pupil  has  completed  his  nature 
study  in  the  fifth  grade,  he  should  have  a  good  knowledge  of  the  physi- 
ography of  his  region,  and  of  the  common  animals  and  plants.  He  will 
then  be  able  to  carry  his  inquiries  into  the  more  specific  field  of  the  agri- 
cultural practice  and  operations.  When  he  has  completed  his  eighth 
year  he  should  have  a  well-developed  sympathy  with  agricultural  affairs, 
and  he  should  have  a  broad  general  view  of  them.  Entering  the  high 
school,  he  will  then  be  able  to  take  up  some  of  the  subjects  in  their  dis- 
tinctly scientific  phases. — N.  E.  A.  Committee  on  Industrial  Education  in 
Rural  Schools,  pp.  44-45. 


Educational  Agriculture. 


9 


a  new  and  unfamiliar  mass  of  materials  but  only  change  our  attitude 
toward  the  same  matters  that  had  before  engaged  our  attention.  Simi- 
larly, in  passing  from  the  economic  to  the  scientific  we  merely  change 
our  attitude.  We  cannot  put  off  our  culture  as  pioneers  following  par- 
allels of  latitude  may  have  done  temporarily  in  the  settlement  of  this 
country,  only  to  be  pursued  and  overtaken  and  bound  fast  by  it,  for  we 
are  not  following  parallels  of  latitude.  In  assuming  the  economic  atti- 
tude we  turn  at  right  angles  to  our  former  position  and  face  the  same 
materials  from  a  new  aspect. 

Ordinarily,  in  the  development  of  a  subject  it  is  necessary  to  have 
regard  for  a  linear  sequence  only,  though  the  work  may  be  cumulative 
and  the  later  stages  assume  a  knowledge  of  all  that  has  preceded,  or  at 
most  the  change  of  attitude  is  gradual.  In  this  subject  it  seems  necessary 
for  the  delimitation  of  the  different  phases  that  these  changes  of  aspect 
be  abrupt  and  at  right  angles.  While  it  is  possible  to  develop  either  of 
these  subjects  without  regard  to  either  of  the  others,  the  ideal  of  an  agri- 
cultural or  scientific  education  which  has  regard  for  a  child  as  a  future 
citizen  rather  than  as  a  poet,  money-maker  or  scientist  must  consider 
the  necessity  of  all  three  factors.  And  the  educator  who  is  presenting 
any  phase  of  the  subject  cannot  deal  justly  with  his  pupils  if  he  have  not 
an  instinctive  regard  for  the  previous  aspects  of  his  pupils  toward  the 
materials  with  which  he  is  working. 

Graphic  representation  of  three  dimensions. — When  a  product  is  made 
from  three  factors  it  may  be  graphically  represented  by  a  rectangular 
solid,  the  three  dimensions  of  the  solid  standing  for  the  three  factors.  In 
the  nature  group  the  common  mass  of  subject  matter  may  be  represented 
by  the  solid,  its  three  dimensions  being  the  cultural,  the  economic  and  the 
scientific  factors.  This  figure  implies  the  essential  relationship  of  the 
three  subjects,  nature  study,  agriculture  and  science,  namely,  that  they 
are  aspects  at  right  angles  to  each  other  of  a  common  mass  of  materials, 
that  taking  them  in  a  fixed  sequence  does  not  relieve  the  student  or 
teacher  from  the  necessity  of  carrying  all  three  factors  in  mind,  or  such 
of  them  as  have  been  previous  objects  of  study  (an  obligation  that  the 
teacher  especially  should  regard) ,  and  that  proficiency  in  one  does  not 
imply  any  degree  of  proficiency  in  the  others. 

high-school    sciences.3  years 


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agricultural  synthesis 
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Fig.  1. 


10 


Western  State  Normal. 


In  the  rectangular  solid,  abed,  (fig.  1)  representing  the  common  mass  of 
materials,  let  ab  stand  for  the  scientific  dimension,  be  the  economic  dimen- 
sion, and  cd  the  cultural  dimension,  the  solid  assuming  definite  shape  only 
as  the  three  organizing  factors  are  applied  to  it,  to  prove  that  the  difficulty 
that  schoolmen  have  in  organizing  this  material  is  due  to  their  inability 
to  think  in  three  dimensions. 

To  be  able  to  teach  any  subject  requires  that  the  teacher  have  and 
impart  an  intelligent  attitude  toward  the  subject.    For  the  subject  matter 

to  remain  in  confusion  in 


Huxley's  crayfish 
Te7as  c  at  1 1 e  1 1  c\/i/ 


SCIENTIFIC 

Fig.  2. 


the  teacher's  mind  means 
that  he  cannot  teach  it  to 
others,  so  that  in  viewing 
the  mass,  abed,  from  his 
/  cultural  standpoint  the 
/  teacher   of   nature   study, 

for  instance,  instinctively 
organizes  it  on  the  cultural 
dimension — using  the  term 
cultural  to  signify  those 
needs  that  are  neither 
present  nor  anticipated 
material  necessities.  What 
this  plan  of  organization  in  the  case  of  nature  study  should  be  is  a  matter 
that  has  never  gotten  into  the  books,  and  some  nature-study  people  insist 
that  it  never  shall,  since  no  two  of  them  organize  in  the  same  way,  and  be- 
cause it  is  spiritual  and  embalming  properly  comes  only  after  the  spirit 
has  departed;  in  other  words,  they  do  not  want  the  subject  killed  by  or- 
ganization, thus  leaving  it  to  each  teacher  to  organize  it  according  to  the 
needs   of   each   particular  „ 

case  but  agreeable  to  rec-  ,***■*' 

ognized  general  principles. 
No  further  discussion  of 
the  organization  on  the 
cultural  dimension  will, 
therefore,  be  essayed, 
other  than  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  mathematical 
fact  that  this  dimension  is 
as  important  to  the  solid 
as  is  either  of  the  others, 
and  the  educational  fact 
that   if   it   be    allowed   to 


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_"_  i&S.ii>£jj<. 


Z- 


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Fig.  3. 


diminish  to  zero  the  entire  volume  becomes  zero  for  educational  purposes. 
It  should  also  be  noted  that  after  the  nature-study  stage  of  development 
of  the  child  is  passed  and  the  economic  and  scientific  stages  are  in  turn 
brought  to  the  focus  of  attention  the  cultural  purpose  should  be  in- 
cidental. 

When  the  scientific  aspect  (fig.  2)  is  approached  organization  is  spon- 
taneous and  the  whole  mass  crystallizes  into  perfect  laminae  with  planes 
of  cleavage  at  right  angles  to  the  scientific  dimension  in  a  manner  com- 


Educational  Agriculture.  11 

parable  to  the  behavior  of  the  magnetic  needle  brought  within  the  in- 
fluence of  a  current  of  electricity.  On  this  aspect  each  lamina  stands  for 
one  of  the  fundamental  sciences,  botany,  zoology,  chemistry,  etc.,  the 
laminae  together  including  the  entire  mass  of  the  solid. 

Coming  to  the  economic  aspect  (fig.  3),  the  making  of  agriculture  a 
high-school  subject  means  its  organization  on  the  economic  dimension,  since 
no  attempt  at  organization  in  the  grammar  grades,  before  the  details  are 
studied  analytically  as  pertaining  to  the  fundamental  sciences,  can  have 
more  than  temporary  educational  value. 

The  latter  economic  organization  has  not  yet  been  completed,  some 
lamina?  having  been  early  marked  out,  as  horticulture  or  animal  hus- 
bandry, while  other  planes  of  cleavage  meet  with  such  obstacles  in  the 
mass  as  to  warp  and  bend  and  obstruct  them,  and  some  of  the  original 
laminae  show  a  tendency  to  split  into  numerous  subdivisions. 

The  educational  frontier. — This  is  now  the  educational  frontier — the 
organization  of  agriculture  as  a  high-school  science  on  its  economic  di- 
mension after  the  analytic  study  of  its  materials  in  the  work  of  the  science 
classes.  When  so  organized  we  will  have  a  science  of  agriculture  and 
every  portion  of  the  mass  of  the  solid  will  lie  in  a  distinct  economic  plane. 
As  it  is  evident  that  a  perfect  organization  will  never  be  possible  owing 
to  the  ramifications  of  certain  subjects  into  other  subjects — such,  for 
instance,  as  the  matter  of  fertility — the  conception  of  agriculture  as  a 
science  will  always  have  to  allow  for  inherent  imperfections.  This  neces- 
sity does  not  obviate  that  other  one  of  continuing  the  attempt  at  organi- 
zation, and  science  men  who  are  used  to  the  stricter  conception  of  the 
term  "science"  may  do  well  to  tolerate  the  other  usage.  Aristotle  must 
have  had  some  such  condition  in  mind  when  he  said,  "It  is  affectation  to 
try  to  treat  a  subject  more  exactly  than  its  nature  permits." 

The  function  of  science  is  organization,  and  it  requires  that  everything 
else  give  way  to  that  purpose.  The  function  of  agriculture  in  the  schools 
must  be  economic,  and  for  that  purpose  organization  is  to  be  regarded  as 
a  means  rather  than  an  end.  The  love  of  science  may  be  such  as  to  lead 
the  student  to  abandon  the  economic  purpose  for  the  scientific  at  some 
place  where  the  pursuit  of  the  former  leads  to  a  point  from  which  open 
out  attractive  fields  of  scientific  study,  which  is  frequently  the  case  with 
students  in  the  agricultural  colleges.  It  is  therefore  much  to  be  desired 
that  the  economic  be  given  its  due  share  of  attractiveness  in  the  high 
school,  that  a  portion  of  its  pupils  be  safely  guided  from  the  economic 
phase  of  the  subject  as  presented  in  the  grammar  grades,  through  the 
analytic  stages  as  considered  in  connection  with  the  high-school  sciences, 
to  the  synthetic  treatment  in  the  later  part  of  the  high-school  work. 

Bringing  materials  within  the  solid  for  organization. — When  com- 
pletely organized  as  suggested  in  previous  paragraphs,  the  place  of  every 
fact,  principle  and  organism  is  as  definitely  determined  as  may  be  the 
latitude,  longitude  and  altitude  of  Mount  McKinley.  Thus  organized, 
some  things  of  high  value  in  one  aspect  will  be  of  low  value  in  another. 
The  art  of  directing  the  high-school  work  in  agriculture  and  science  is  to 
utilize  matter  that  is  of  high  value  in  as  many  different  aspects  as  pos- 
sible, taking  care  that  such  subjects  as  are  of  little  value  for  one  purpose 
have  their  existence  in  the  work  justified  by  a  high  value  for  some  other 


12  Western  State  Normal. 

purpose.  And  it  will  be  necessary  in  the  treatment  of  the  different 
phases  of  this  nature  group  of  materials  to  utilize  in  the  development  of 
each  phase  of  it  certain  matters  that  have  no  value  whatever  in  the  treat- 
ment of  either  one  or  both  of  the  other  phases.  Thus  Huxley's  crayfish, 
which  is  a  vertebrate  turned  inside  out  and  upside  down  and  hind  end 
before,  stands  high  in  the  scientific  purpose  as  a  means  of  distinguishing 
between  the  essential  and  the  nonessential  in  animal  structure,  as  an  ex- 
ample of  the  success  of  a  type  of  structure  that  contradicts  erroneous 
ideas  that  may  exist  in  the  student's  mind  gained  from  the  teachings  of 
the  ordinary  texts  on  human  anatomy  and  physiology.  Our  method  of 
graphic  representation  would  have  to  indicate  such  a  fact  as  lying  out- 
side the  common  mass  of  materials,  though  still  in  its  proper  place  in 
the  scientific  plane.  Similarly,  the  pussy  willow  and  alfalfa,  which  may 
rank  high  in  their  respective  cultural  and  economic  planes,  may  be  en- 
tirely outside  the  common  mass.  In  such  cases  as  these,  correlation 
must  give  way  to  the  needs  of  the  particular  subject  under  consideration. 
But  these  exceptions  are  not  so  common  as  teachers  of  high-school  science 
have  heretofore  seemed  to  think. 

As  an  example  of  a  compromise  that  illustrates  the  matter  under  con- 
sideration, no  better  illustration  could  be  found  than  Boophilus  annulatus, 
which,  besides  being  typical  of  a  large  class  of  animals,  is  valuable  scien- 
tifically for  the  study  of  its  life  history  and  as  a  typical  parasite.  Other 
examples  may  be  as  good  for  these  purposes;  but  when  we  discover  that 
B.  annulatus  is  none  other  than  the  Texas  cattle  tick  that  costs  the  state 
of  Tennessee  eleven  million  dollars  annually  and  the  other  Southern 
states  correspondingly,  such  school  as  may  procure  this  organism  may  do 
well  to  have  regard  for  its  economic  significance  by  utilizing  it  for  purely 
scientific  study.  Similarly,  in  the  study  of  entomology,  the  corn  plant 
alone  furnishes  good  examples  of  five  of  the  seven  Linnaean  orders,  all  of 
high  economic  importance.  The  same  condition  exists  with  regard  to 
botanical  types.  While  advanced  students  of  pure  science,  to  be  true  to 
the  ideals  of  their  calling,  cannot  have  regard  to  the  economic  importance 

Intrinsically  useful  materials  may  just  as  successfully  form  the  basis 
for  the  development  of  ideals  as  intrinsically  useless  materials.  That 
the  student  of  engineering  or  agriculture  or  commerce  does  not  always 
acquire  the  ideals  that  mark  the  cultured  and  refined  "gentleman"  is  not 
the  fault  of  the  subject-matter,  but  rather  of  the  method. — Bagley: 
The  Educative  Process,  p.  221. 

The  nature  of  the  mind  determines  what  is  essential  in  the  educative 
processes,  and  this  without  reference  to  environment.  .  .  .  The  nature 
of  the  mind  does  not  determine  the  choice  of  material  available  as  the 
source  of  stimuli  for  various  forms  of  mental  activity  and  control. 
Material  may  be  employed  as  the  source  of  stimuli  to  mental  activity  and 
be  excellent  for  that  purpose  while  having  little  or  no  other  value.  Other 
material  may  be  employed  of  equal  value  for  the  same  purpose  and  pos- 
sessing further  value  of  a  high  order  as  usable  knowledge.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  no  one  will  take  issue  with  the  statement  that  whenever 
material  of  the  latter  kind  can  be  employed  that  will  fully  meet  the 
needs  of  the  child  by  furnishing  the  proper  stimuli  for  desired  mental 
activities,  it  should  be  employed,  and  not  displaced  by  that  material 
that  has  a  value  solely  as  a  source  of  stimuli  but  without  value  as  usable 
knowledge. — N.  E.  A.  Committee  on  Industrial  Education  in  Rural 
Schools  (1905),  p.  19. 


Educational  Agriculture.  13 

of  the  forms  studied,  the  high-school  student  of  science  will  have  plenty  to 
do  well  within  the  economic  limitation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  teacher 
who  is  committed  to  the  teaching  of  the  "practical"  should  not  fail  to  ap- 
preciate the  fact  that  no  organism,  however  insignificant  it  may  be  eco- 
nomically, how  rare  numerically,  or  how  aberrant  structurally,  but  may 
help  emphasize  the  essentials  of  structure  of  one  that  has  economic 
significance  or  which  may  itself,  by  changes  in  environment,  come  to 
have  great  economic  significance. 

Trouble  with  that  third  dimension. — Some  further  features  of  our 
rectangular  solid  are  significant.  It  is  evident  that  one  may  pass  directly 
from  consideration  of  any  aspect  of  it  to  the  consideration  of  either  of  the 
others,  so  the  student  or  teacher  may  pass  directly  from  the  consideration 
of  nature  study  to  either  science  or  agriculture,  or  may  have  an  apprecia- 
tion of  the  latter  two  without  having  any  conception  of  the  cultural 
significance  of  the  total.  These  possibilities,  namely,  the  three  single 
aspects  and  the  three  possible  combinations  of  two  of  them,  none  of 
which  is  sufficient,  explain  the  diversity  of  views  on  the  subject  similar 
to  those  entertained  by  the 

"six  men  of  Indostan 
To  learning  much  inclined, 
Who  went  to  see  the  elephant 

(Though  all  of  them  were  blind). 
That  each  by  observation 
Might  satisfy  his  mind. 

"And  so  these  men  of  Indostan 

Disputed  loud  and  long, 
Each  in  his  own  opinion 

Exceeding  stiff  and  strong, 
Though  each  was  partly  in  the  right, 

And  all  were  in  the  wrong." 

Generally,  that  third  dimension  or  its  equivalent  has  been  the  stumbling 
block  of  every  form  of  mental  endeavor  that  calls  for  judgment,  from  the 
high-school  student  of  solid  geometry  to  the  landscape  painter  who  "lacks 
perspective."  So  general  is  this  defect  that  the  critic  of  any  piece  of 
work  may  fall  back  upon  it  when  other  criticisms  are  impossible,  though, 
rightly  conceived,  it  constitutes  the  finest  test  of  the  artistic  tempera- 
ment. And  in  the  case  in  hand  it  is  a  test  which  many  a  schoolman  fails 
to  pass  because  he  can  see  only  one  face  of  the  solid. 

There  is  no  field  or  real  knowledge  which  may  not  suddenly  prove  con- 
tributory in  a  high  degree  to  human  happiness  and  the  progress  of 
civilization,  and  therefore  acceptable  as  a  worthy  element  in  the  truest 
culture. — Eliot:    Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  47. 

So  intimate  are  the  relations  of  human  beings  to  the  animate  and  in- 
animate creation  that  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  with  what  realms  of 
nature  intense  human  interests  may  prove  to  be  identified. — Eliot: 
Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  46. 

Any  attempt  to  "cut  out"  the  "impractical"  parts  invariably  results 
in  the  inefficient  functioning  of  the  remainder.  Short  courses  that  aim 
to  give  only  the  essentials,  fifth-rate  colleges  and  normal  schools  that 
educate  you  while  you  wait,  are  sufficiently  damned  by  their  own  prod- 
ucts.— Bagley:    The   Educative   Process,  p.   233. 


14  Western  State  Normal. 

Limitations  of  the  nature-study  point  of  view. — We  sometimes  see  the 
nature-study  people  claiming  to  have  the  only  correct  point  of  view  be- 
cause, as  they  see  it,  it  is  very  plain  that  the  whole  subject  of  agriculture 
may  be  organized  on  the  cultural  dimension,  and  theirs  being  the  first  in 
point  of  time,  they  are  loath  to  yield  to  any  one  else  this  popular  field  in 
which  they  have  had  such  success  in  the  elementary  grades.  The  progress 
from  the  nature-study  stage  to  the  complete  organization  in  all  three 
dimensions  is  a  necessary  metamorphosis  through  which  some  schoolmen 
seem  unable  to  pass.  One  who  cannot  get  away  from  the  nature-study 
stage  cannot  organize  his  knowledge  as  general  science,  however  much 
it  accumulates.  Organization  implies  science.  Continued  work  in  nature 
study  may  result  in  the  accumulation  of  a  vast  mass  of  interesting  ma- 
terials and  the  formation  of  encyclopedias,  but  its  character  as  nature- 
study  material  precludes  its  unification  into  science.  Its  exponents  and 
teachers  should  not  and  usually  do  not  expect  it  to  aid  in  the  solution  of 
the  problem  of  high-school  agriculture.  Like  Maggy  in  "Little  Dorrit," 
it  is  destined  to  remain  forever  "just  ten."  "When  I  was  a  child,  I  spake 
as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child,  I  thought  as  a  child;  but  when  I  be- 
came a  man,  I  put  away  childish  things." 

Inadequacy  of  the  economic  point  of  view. — We  sometimes  see  the 
agriculturists  claiming  to  have  the  only  point  of  view  from  which  to  or- 
ganize this  subject  of  agriculture  in  the  high  school,  and  they  are  a  very 
formidable  set  of  promoters  to  cope  with,  because  they  know  the  strength 
of  the  popular  dissatisfaction  with  the  high  school  and  that  the  hopes  of 
its  reform  are  based,  to  a  large  degree,  on  their  progress.  They  also  have 
the  art  of  achieving  an  early  seeming  success,  which  they  attain  by  sub- 
stituting for  the  citizenship  ideal — which  is  slow  of  attainment  and  demon- 
stration— the  purely  economic  purpose,  which  measures  the  success  of 
their  plan  by  dollars  and  cents  and  requires  just  one  season  and  one  crop 
to  demonstrate. 

Investigations  concerning  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  have  shown 
satisfactorily  that  unless  a  subject  is  consciously  idealized  during  the 
period  of  training  in  it,  by  the  enlightened  enthusiasm  of  the  teacher, 
such  acquirements  in  neatness,  accuracy,  thoroughness,  persistency,  etc., 

To  describe  without  rising  to  the  causes  or  descending  to  the  conse- 
quences is  no  more  science  than  merely  and  simply  to  relate  a  fact  of 
which  one  has  been  a  witness. — Guyot. 

There  is  a  stage  in  mental  development,  above  the  empirical  stage 
and  below  the  philosophical,  which  may  be  called  the  scientific. — E.  E. 
Brown  :    The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  3. 

If  a  child  at  any  particular  epoch  in  his  development  is  compelled  to 
repeat  any  fixed  form  of  action  belonging  to  a  lower  stage  of  develop- 
ment, the  tendency  will  be  for  him  to  stop  at  that  point,  and  it  will  be 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  get  him  up  onto  a  higher  plane.  .  .  . 
Thoroughness  in  the  pursuit  of  any  study  in  the  elementary  school  may 
result  in  cessation  instead  of  promotion  of  mental  growth. — Harris: 
Educational  Creeds  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  pp.  39,  40. 

Whenever  the  study  of  nature  enters  upon  organization  of  the  whole 
and  the  pigeonholing  of  facts  in  some  general  scheme  it  becomes  science, 
and  in  our  usage  of  the  term  ceases  to  be  nature  study. — Coulter  and 
Patterson:    Practical  Nature  Study,  p.  17. 


Educational  Agriculture.  15 

as  it  affords  the  pupil  will  be  of  little  value  to  him  in  the  pursuit  of  other 
studies  or  exercises.  The  value  of  formal  discipline  thus  inheres  in  the 
subject  in  which  the  discipline  is  given,  and  unless  the  personal  virtues 
exercised  in  its  pursuit  are  purposely  dignified  by  the  teacher  such  sub- 
ject is  inadequate  for  the  purposes  of  general  education.  This  fact 
makes  it  incumbent  upon  the  teacher  who  would  make  agriculture  a 
culture  subject,  without  which  its  educational  value  will  be  limited,  to 
idealize  it.  Were  the  purpose  merely  to  impart  valuable  information 
and  drill  in  correct  practices,  the  instruction  would  not  call  for  such 
idealization.  In  this  matter  the  work  in  agriculture  in  the  agricultural 
school  may  essentially  differ  from  that  of  the  regular  high  school,  whose 
ideal  is  the  highest  type  of  citizenship.  Thus  it  is  that  the  culture  factor 
must  be  carried  along  with  the  economic  to  the  end  of  the  course,  and 
thus  it  is  written  that  "man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone." 

When  the  grammar  grades  have  done  their  whole  duty  in  the  teach- 
ing of  agriculture  the  only  thing  left  for  the  high  school  to  do  in  the 
matter  is  to  raise  it  to  the  rank  of  a  science.  This  involves  the  scientific 
consideration  of  every  feature  that  is  to  have  a  place  in  the  science  of 
agriculture  as  the  high  school  shall  attempt  to  organize  it.  The  only 
technical  difficulties  in  the  study  of  agriculture  are  scientific  difficulties. 
This  analysis  is,  therefore,  best  provided  for  in  the  regular  science  classes 
of  the  first  three  years  of  the  high-school  course.  The  advantage  to  the 
fundamental  sciences  of  the  utilization  of  agricultural  materials  is  a 
matter  of  vital  importance  to  the  sciences  themselves  which  will  be  dealt 
with  elsewhere. 

Unless  this  scientific  treatment  of  such  features  as  are  related  to  the 
fundamental  sciences  is  done,  agriculture  can  no  more  become  a  high- 
school  subject  than  a  stream  can  rise  higher  than  its  source,  and  its  ex- 
tension into  the  high  school  will  bring  discredit  upon  it  as  well  as  upon 
the  high  school  that  attempts  it,  for  no  high-school  student  who  has 
average  mental  powers  and  the  average  respect  for  them  will  be  at- 
tracted by  a  subject  that  is  kept  in  its  elementary  stage.  But  after  an 
analytic  treatment  of  details  as  a  part  of  the  regular  science  work  this 
subject  may  be  erected  into  a  science  by  the  synthesis  of  details,  pre- 
viously treated  analytically,  with  the  general  principles  which  involve 
the  art  of  agriculture. 

Tyranny  of  the  scientific  point  of  view. — We  sometimes  see  the  scien- 
tists claiming  to  have  the  only  possible  system  of  organization  because 

The  most  generally  valuable  elements  of  the  environment  having  been 
introduced  into  the  elementary  curriculum,  there  is  not  as  much  need  for 
a  large  body  of  prescribed  elements  in  the  secondary  curriculum.  The 
basic  representativeness  of  the  elementary  course,  more  than  the  age 
and  nature  of  the  adolescent  pupils,  allows  election  in  the  high  school. — 
Heck:    Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values,  p.  138. 

The  highest  type  of  spontaneous,  whole-souled  activity  cannot  be  de- 
veloped about  trifling  or  worthless  things. — Hodge:  Nature  Study  and 
Life,  p.  23. 

It  is  .  .  .  the  business  of  secondary  education  to  raise  all  subjects 
which  it  touches  to  the  plane  of  science,  by  bringing  all  into  the  point  of 
view  of  organizing  principles.— E.  E.  Brown:  The  Making  of  Our 
Middle  Schools,  p.  4. 


16  Western  State  Normal. 

that  is  the  peculiar  function  of  science — to  organize.  So  much  do  the 
cultural  and  economic  organizations  suffer  from  comparison  with  the 
scientific  organization  that  the  passage  of  an  economic  plane  of  cleavage, 
for  instance,  at  right  angles  to  the  scientific,  has  the  effect  of  polarizing 
all  the  light  from  that  aspect,  resulting  in  diminished  lucidity  or  even 
extinction.  Through  such  incomprehensible  masses  as  marketing,  stock 
judging,  silos,  manures,  or  forage  crops,  their  planes  of  cleavage  refuse 
to  cut.  Such  persons  are,  of  course,  not  suited  to  teach  the  subject  of 
agriculture  in  its  synthetic  form  as  an  organized  science.  And  when 
one  considers  the  application  to  agricultural  purposes  and  the  use  of 
agricultural  materials  that  is  intended  to  be  a  feature  of  the  work  in 
elementary  physics,  physical  geography,  botany,  zoology,  and  chemistry, 
he  will  be  forced  to  conclude  that  such  insistence  on  scientific  perfection 
is  inconsistent  with  the  use  of  such  subject  matter.  For  in  all  the  high- 
school  work  the  agricultural  pabulum  must  consist  largely  of  "rough- 
age," not  only  from  local  necessity  but  from  preference  as  well,  for 
roughage  is  a  necessary  concomitant  of  the  "horse  sense"  which  is  a 
cherished  object  of  agriculture  in  the  high  school. 

Concerning  teachers. — By  common  consent  the  necessary  preparation 
for  the  high-school  teacher  of  any  subject  includes  university  or  collegiate 
training  in  his  specialty,  and  this  necessity  can  in  no  other  subject  be 
greater  than  in  the  teaching  of  agriculture.  The  greatest  fault  peculiar 
to  such  teachers  is  apt  to  be  the  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  cultural  value 
of  this  subject,  owing  to  the  fact  that  culture  is  deep-seated  and  must 
antedate  the  collegiate  training  of  the  teacher. 

The  greatest  fault  of  the  scientist  will  be  his  inability  to  gather  to- 
gether into  synthetic  unity  the  dissociated  bits  of  the  subject,  granted 
that  he  has  done  his  duty  by  it  in  the  regular  science  work  preceding 
its  organization.  He  may  also  be  found  unwilling  to  concede  that  the 
knowledge  of  nature  as  presented  in  the  high-school  sciences  is,  first, 
for  the  purpose  of  improving  on  nature,  and  secondly,  for  the  formation 
of  a  foundation  for  the  superstructure  of  philosophy,  and  that  both  may 
be  attained  by  one  process. 

Sometimes  it  seems  that  scientists  think  that  they  have  the  right  of 
way  in  the  subjects  which  they  espouse;  but  there  is  more  than  one  way 
of  interpreting  nature. — Bailey:    The  Nature-study  Idea,  p.  94. 

The  degree  of  scholarship  required  for  secondary  teachers  is  by  com- 
mon consent  fixed  at  a  collegiate  education. — Report  of  the  "Committee 
of  Fifteen,"  N.  E.  A.,  1895. 

The  teacher  who  is  preparing  for  high-school  work  in  agriculture 
has  a  fairly  definite  and  limited  field,  and  he  can  prepare  himself  con- 
cretely. The  field  is  essentially  a  natural-science  field.  The  high-school 
teacher  of  agriculture  should  be  as  well  grounded  in  the  science  and 
practice  of  his  subject  as  the  teacher  of  physics  or  chemistry  or  botany  is 
in  his  field.  He  should,  in  fact,  have  a  deeper  and  broader  training, 
since  he  must  use  physics,  chemistry,  botany  and  the  like  in  his  special 
agricultural  work.  For  many  years  to  come  the  natural-science  teacher 
will  probably  be  obliged  to  handle  the  agricultural  work  in  many  high 
schools  that  introduce  the  subject.  .  .  .  We  may  hope  that  eventually 
the  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences  may  be  so  vital  and  applicable  that 
these  sciences  may  constitute  a  part  of  a  real  course  in  agriculture. — 
Bailey:    Training  for  Teachers  of  Agriculture,  p.  10. 


Educational  Agriculture.  17 

The  disadvantage  that  the  nature-study  enthusiast  will  labor  under 
as  a  teacher  will  be  his  inability  to  appreciate  the  whole  subject  as  a 
high-school  subject;  to  realize  that  no  subject  has  ever  gotten  into  the 
high  school  from  below;  that  so  long  as  the  race  is  advancing  and 
"ontogeny  recapitulates  phylogeny"  educationally,  subjects  will,  as  here- 
tofore, be  handed  down  from  above. 

And  the  greatest  fault  of  the  teacher  whose  principal  qualification  for 
the  agricultural  work  is  that  he  was  "reared  on  a  farm"  is  that  his 
stock  of  agricultural  knowledge  will  usually  be  found  largely  composed 
of  things  that  ought,  for  the  good  of  agriculture,  to  have  been  forgotten 
long  ago. 


2— ED.  AGR. 


PART  II.— Organization. 


Chapter  II. 

MOTIVES. 

A  discussion  of  agricultural  pedagogy  properly  begins  with  a  con- 
sideration of  motives.  These  might  be  classified  as  racial,  moral  (national) 
and  economic  (individual) — these  divisions  being  indistinct  and  over- 
lapping. The  most  patent  motive  and  the  present  strength  of  the  move- 
ment for  agricultural  instruction  in  the  schools  is  the  last.  Hence,  as 
a  reform,  the  propaganda  has  been  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  agricul- 
turists. 

Educators  should  realize  the  great  racial  and  moral  significance  of 
the  reform  and  put  it  on  a  higher  plane  than  the  purely  economic.  The 
attainment  of  the  racial  and  national  motives  will  in  no  way  interfere 
with  the  economic,  and  being  of  a  higher  order  will  aid  in  the  idealization 
of  the  vocation  as  it  should  be  idealized  to  be  worthy  of  a  place  in  an 
educational  system. 

The  racial  need  of  this  reform  may  be  appreciated  by  one  who  con- 
siders the  changed  mode  of  life  which  we  lead  as  compared  with  that 
which  the  race  led  during  the  ages  when  natural  selection  was  molding 
the  minds  and  bodies  of  our  ancestors  into  the  form  which  they  have 
transmitted  to  us.  The  proper  balance  between  physical  and  mental  work 
should  be  restored,  particularly  with  children  of  school  age.  Bodily 
preservation  is  of  prime  importance,  as  the  most  hopeless  ruin  is  bodily 
ruin.  School  practices  are  often  personally  and  racially  dangerous,  re- 
sulting in  school-bred  diseases  and  few  offspring  for  what  should  be  the 
best  selected  portion  of  each  generation. 

Industrial  education  is  the  natural  corrective  for  this  condition,  agri- 
culture being  especially  valuable  as  the  oldest,  most  general  and  most 
permanent  vocation.     Artificially  made  exercises  will  always  be  inade- 

The  senescence  of  the  original  American  stock  is  already  seen  in 
abandoned  farms  and  the  infecundity  of  graduates. — Hall:  Adoles- 
cence, p.  xvi. 

I  would  put  industrial  education  into  the  schools,  not  altogether  be- 
cause it  is  demanded,  but  because  it  is  an  essential  part  of  a  system  of 
education  that  aims  at  racial  development. — Davenport:  Education  for 
Efficiency,  p.  49. 

We  must  be  willing  to  stop  short  of  the  highest  possible  scholarship  in 
our  American  schools,  if  that  last  finish  of  scholarly  excellence  cost  never 
so  little  of  the  real  vigor  of  American  life.  The  life  is  more  than  learn- 
ing.— E.  E.  Brown  :    The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  454. 

It  seems  quite  clear  that  luxury  and  "culture"  lead  almost  invariably 
in  a  few  generations  to  degeneracy.  The  history  of  this  republic  offers 
hundreds  of  conspicuous  examples  of  this  phenomenon.     History  teaches 

(19) 


20  Western  State  Normal. 

quate  because  they  lack  incentive.  The  economic  motive,  while  not 
ranking  highest  with  the  educator,  often  makes  the  strongest  appeal 
to  the  pupil  and  should  be  utilized  until  the  higher  may  be  inculcated. 
The  national  motive  pertains  to  instruction  in  the  conservation  of 
natural  resources,  which  will  naturally  fall  to  the  agricultural  course. 
As  a  nation  of  despoilers  we  have  carried  this  habit  over  from  natural 
wealth  to  the  fields  of  business  and  politics,  and  it  thus  becomes  of  great 
moral  significance.  If  our  country  is  to  remain  prosperous  and  wealthy, 
as  we  all  hope  it  may,  we  are  in  great  danger  of  running  the  usual  cycle 
of  leisure,  luxury,  decadence  and  extinction — a  series  of  causes  and  re- 
sults which  summarize  the  history  of  many  past  nations.  The  best  cor- 
rective of  this  tendency  is  a  permanent  connection  with  our  sources  of 
strength,  through  those  vocations  which  are  coexistent  with  racial 
progress.  The  success  of  the  economic  purpose  insures  us  the  necessary 
prosperity.  The  others  should  aim  to  put  on  the  brakes,  that  prosperity 
may  prove  a  permanent  blessing. 

that  the  hope  of  a  nation  lies  in  the  masses.  If  they  are  weaklings  and 
degenerates,  decay  inevitably  follows. — Carlton:  Education  and  In- 
dustrial Evolution,  p.  316. 

In  the  past  nations  and  races  have  unceasingly  passed  through  a  cycle 
which  led  finally  to  degeneracy,  decay  and  subjection  to  stronger,  more 
virile,  because  more  primitive,  races.  In  the  United  States  the  enormous 
increase  in  wealth  and  the  enlargement  of  the  leisure  class,  especially  in 
the  case  of  the  weaker  sex,  indicate  that  this  nation  is  reaching  a  place 
in  her  national  history  which,  if  she  is  to  follow  the  cycle  traced  by  older 
nations,  presages  national  degeneration. — Carlton:  Education  and  In- 
dustrial Evolution,  p.  17. 

A  great  need  of  modern  industrial  society  is  intellectual  pleasures. — 
Eliot:    Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  39. 

The  purpose  of  a  vocation  is  to  gain  time  for  avocation;  .  .  .  the 
aim  of  labor  is  leisure.  The  things  that  our  labor  produces  would  not 
interest  us  indefinitely,  or  perhaps  greatly,  if  they  were  not  exchange- 
able for  leisure  or  if  they  did  not  contribute  to  the  enjoyment  of  leisure. 
.  .  .  We  do  not  ask  a  man  to  provide  an  economic  basis  for  somebody 
else's  leisure,  for  the  exercise  of  someone  else's  powers  of  reflection  and 
creation,  but  for  his  own.  .  .  .  Vocational  training  ought  not  to  be 
included  in  the  six  years  that  are  sufficient  for  the  elementary  school 
courses. — Butler:  Training  for  Vocation  and  for  Avocation,  Educa- 
tional Review,  December,  1908,  pp.  471,  472. 


Chapter  III. 

GENETIC  PSYCHOLOGY  AS  AN  AID  IN  ORGANIZATION. 

While  the  proper  organization  of  the  nature  group  of  subjects,  in- 
cluding nature  study,  agriculture  and  the  natural  sciences,  is  perhaps 
the  most  difficult  educational  problem  of  the  generation,  there  is  no  new 
kind  of  pedagogy  peculiar  to  agriculture.  The  same  principles  govern 
in  the  organization  of  this  as  of  any  other  subject  in  the  curriculum. 
The  only  way  to  find  out  what  these  principles  are  is  by  investigation 
into  the  development  of  the  human-  mind  from  the  earliest  years  until 
maturity,  and  this  constitutes  the  science  of  genetic  psychology. 

Broadly  speaking,  this  order  of  development  is  relatively  fixed  with 
regard  to  the  entire  human  species.  Nerve  centers  have  a  well  known 
sequence  in  the  order  of  their  development  and  appropriate  exercise, 
and  the  ignoring  of  the  latter  constitutes  the  greatest  waste.  And  these 
underlying  laws  are  independent  of  our  particular  aim  in  education. 
Having  determined  what  they  are,  the  educator  is  subject  to  them  so 
far  as  they  apply  in  the  utilization  of  subject  matter,  and  hence  may 
place  nothing  in  the  course  of  training  arbitrarily.  He  may  not  always 
be  sure  what  these  principles  are,  but  if  there  be  science  of  education  it 
is  its  duty  to  find  them.  Any  blind  devotion  to  traditional  educational 
practices  is  a  deliberate  confession  of  our  ignorance  of  the  way  in  which 
the  human  mind  develops. 

Genetic  psychology  is  but  a  phase  of  the  broader  subject  of  evolution, 
which  conceives  man  as  having  come  up  from  the  world  fauna  "out  of 
great  tribulation"  and  with  the  ineradicable  marks  of  the  struggle,  se- 
lection, and  survival  upon  him  and  his  children.  No  race  that  has  been 
able  to  evade  the  struggle  has  ever  developed  to  a  very  high  stage  of 
civilization.     And    starting   from   a   state   in   which   he   represents   the 

The  laws  that  underlie  the  educative  process  are  largely  independent 
of  the  ultimate  •  end  of  education. — Bagley:  The  Educative  Process, 
p.  40. 

Attention  must  be  called  to  the  fact  that  much  of  our  devotion  to 
traditional  educational  practices  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  deliberate 
confession  of  our  ignorance  of  the  way  in  which  the  human  mind  de- 
velops.— Judd:    Psychology,  p.  370. 

The  former  age,  in  which  all  thought  that  trades  must  be  established 
by  bounties  and  prohibitions;  that  manufacturers  needed  their  materials 
and  qualities  and  prices  to  be  prescribed,  and  that  the  value  of  money 
could  be  determined  by  law,  was  an  age  which  unavoidably  cherished  the 
notions  that  a  child's  mind  could  be  made  to  order;  that  its  powers  were 
to  be  imparted  by  the  schoolmaster;  that  it  was  a  receptacle  into  which 
knowledge  was  to  be  put  and  there  built  up  after  the  teacher's  ideal.  In 
this  era,  however,  ...  we  are  also  beginning  to -see  that  there  is  a 
natural  process  of  mental  evolution  which  is  not  to  be  disturbed  without 
injury;  that  we  may  not  force  upon  the  unfolding  mind  our  artificial 
forms;  but  that  psychology  also  discloses  to  us  a  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand to  which,  if  we  would  not  do  harm,  we  must  conform. — Spencer: 
Education,  pp.  89,  90. 

Man  is  also  an  animal.  He  has  come  up  from  the  world-fauna.  On 
his  way  he  contended  hand  to  hand  with  the  other  animal  creation.     He 

(21) 


22  Western  State  Normal. 

physiological  and  psychological  condition  of  his  most  remote  ancestor, 
every  child  must  pass  through  a  series  of  formal  stages  that  represent 
analogous  periods  of  race  history  down  to  the  present,  thus  arriving  at 
his  individual  maturity  and  joining  the  ranks  of  his  fellow  men  only 
after  a  long  infancy  fraught  with  perils  to  both  body  and  soul.  How 
easy  it  seems  to  influence  the  child;  yet  this  formula  of  his  development 
which  he  inherits  is  the  most  permanent  thing  in  the  world.  This 
permanency  is  the  one  thing  that  makes  a  science  of  genetic  psychology 
possible. 

Man  is  bound  to  his  racial  progenitors  by  chains  of  heredity  that  he 
cannot  break.  His  environment,  which  limits  his  structure  where 
heredity  does  not,  is  essentially  the  same  as  his  ancestors',  and  heredity 
gives  him  the  same  set  of  vital  organs.  His  muscular  work  may  change 
with  the  progress  of  civilization,  but  heredity  does  n't  recognize  the 
changed  needs  and  endows  him  with  the  same  outfit  that  his  hunting 
and  fighting  and  dancing  ancestors  had,  except  where  modified  by  natural 
selection.  His  spiritual  needs  may  differ  yet  more,  but  still  man  "thinks 
with  his  muscles,"  and  mental  development,  through  the  necessity  of  the 

killed  from  necessity  of  obtaining  food.  As  he  arose  above  his  contest- 
ants, this  necessity  became  less  urgent. — Bailey:  The  Nature-study 
Idea,  p.  108. 

This  great  process  of  subjugation,  this  hand-to-hand  fight  against 
nature,  must  have  constituted  the  main  line  of  human  nature  study 
for  thousands,  probably  for  tens  of  thousands,  of  years  before  language 
took  form  and  written  history  began,  and  it  has  formed  a  large  part  of 
the  work  ever  since.  And  how  far  have  vermin,  weeds,  insects  and 
microbes  been  brought  under  subjection  even  now?  To  what  extent  this 
phase  of  struggle  and  warfare  should  enter  into  the  course  in  nature 
study  must  remain  largely  a  matter  for  individual  parents  and  teachers 
to  decide,  but  that  it  has  played  an  important  part  and  fundamental  role 
in  development  of  civilization  and  formation  of  human  character  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  And  it  remains  as  true  as  ever  that  character  can  only 
be  developed  by  struggle,  by  active,  intelligent,  patient  overcoming  of 
difficulties,  the  elements  that  achieved  success  throughout  the  ancient 
travail  of  the  race. — Hodge  :    Nature  Study  and  Life,  pp.  2,  3. 

Students  of  biology  consider  the  argument  for  organic  evolution 
especially  strong  in  view  of  the  analogy  between  race  and  individual  de- 
velopment. The  individual  in  embryo  passes  through  stages  which  rep- 
resent, morphologically,  to  a  degree,  the  stages  actually  found  in  the 
ancestral  animal  series.  A  similar  analogy,  when  inquired  into  on  the 
side  of  consciousness,  seems  on  the  surface  true,  since  we  find  more  and 
more  developed  stages  of  conscious  function  in  a  series  corresponding  in 
the  main  with  the  stages  of  nervous  growth  in  the  animals;  and  then  we 
find  this  growth  paralleled  in  its  great  features  in  the  mental  develop- 
ment of  the  human  infant. — Baldwin:    Mental  Development,  p.  14. 

There  are  no  finalities  save  formulae  of  development. — Hall:  Adol., 
p.  viii. 

Strange  would  it  be,  indeed,  if  intelligent  and  serious  attention  to 
what  the  child  now  needs  and  is  capable  of  in  the  way  of  a  rich,  valuable 
and  expanded  life  should  somehow  conflict  with  the  needs  and  possibili- 
ties of  later  adult  lifa — Dewey:    The  School  and  Society,  p.  71. 

It  would  be  utterly  contrary  to  the  beautiful  economy  of  nature  if  one 
kind  of  culture  were  needed  for  the  gaining  of  information  and  another 


Educational  Agriculture.  23 

kinesthetic  factor,  is  conditioned  upon  muscular  activity.  These  con- 
ditions being  enforced  by  nature,  it  behooves  the  educator  to  lay  hold  of 
them  and  utilize  them  in  his  task  of  developing  to  their  fullest  the  in- 
herited faculties  of  the  child,  for  they  are  the  only  endowments  which 
nature  provides  the  individual  for  any  kind  of  human  achievement. 

But  while  racial  heredity  is  unalterable  except  by  the  slow  process  of 
natural  selection  in  the  case  of  man — the  race  having  never  maintained 
a  permanent  policy  of  selective  mating — there  is  one  place  in  which 
heredity  leaves  a  loophole.  This  loophole,  being  itself  a  matter  of 
heredity  in  which  man  differs  from  all  other  species,  is  the  plastic  con- 
dition of  the  nervous  organization  of  each  infant  whereby  it  may  be 
molded  to  suit  the  changed  intellectual  needs  of  each  generation.  Plas- 
ticity and  lack  of  an  imposed  stock  of  fixed  mental  reactions  not  only 
makes  education  possible  and  necessary,  but  at  the  same  time  prevents 
the  educational  acquirements  of  one  generation,  which  in  the  total  make 
up  its  civilization,  from  being  transmitted  to  the  next.  Each  infant 
starts  in  life  with  a  "clean  slate,"  and  it  is  only  by  virtue  of  a  prolonged 
infancy,  the  natural  faculty  of  imitation  and  the  assistance  of  others, 
that  he  approximates  the  average  of  his  generation  in  intellectual  at- 
tainments. And  if  after  spending  a  good  part  of  his  life  in  furthering 
the  cause  of  civilization  he  perhaps  aids  in  advancing  it  ever  so  little, 
his  success  but  increases  the  educational  task  imposed  upon  the  next 
generation.  The  task  of  education  in  the  promotion  of  civilization  is 
therefore  an  increasingly  difficult  one. 

A  civilization,  according  to  this  conception,  cannot  be  inherited.  But 
if  its  purposes  agree  with  the  physical  good  of  the  species  it  may  become 
a  selective  factor  resulting  in  an  increasing  of  the  inherited  nervous 
plasticity  upon  which  education  and  civilization  depend.  That  such 
seems  to  be  the  case  is  optimistic,  and  the  increased  nervous  plasticity 
is  evidenced  by  an  increasing  capacity  for  education  and  a  lengthening 
of  infancy  in  which  to  educate.  Precocity,  or  early  maturity,  is  therefore 
usually  an  indication  of  low  organization. 

Genetic  psychology  recognizes  these  facts  and  has  marked  out  dis- 
tinct stages  of  physical  and  mental  development  through  which  all  chil- 
dren must  pass  to  reach  maturity.  These  correspond,  more  or  less 
accurately,  with  ancient  periods  of  racial  development  that  required  un- 
told generations  for  their  completion.  In  his  passage  through  these 
stages  the  child  revives  many  of  the  ancient  feelings  and  activities  that 
the  race  had  during  the  corresponding  stages,  and  the  wise  educator 
puts  himself  in  sympathy  with  the  child  by  recognizing  that  the  pleasure 
of  any  experience  is  proportional  to  its  hereditary  directness,  and  that 

were  needed  as  a  mental  gymnastic.  Everywhere  throughout  creation 
we  find  faculties  developed  through  the  performance  of  those  functions 
which  it  is  their  office  to  perform;  not  through  the  performance  of  arti- 
ficial exercises. — Spencer:  Education,  chap.  I,  "What  Knowledge  is 
Most  Worth?" 

The  mind  of  a  child,  in  analogy  with  the  physical  embryo  of  an  ani- 
mal, recapitulates  in  a  few  years  the  slow  evolution  of  the  race,  for  just 
as  the  embryo  of  one  of  the  higher  animals  in  its  unfolding  is  known 
to  pass  through  all  the  essential  stages  of  development  manifested  by 
lower  orders,  so  the  child  in  his  mental  development  may  be  conceived 


24  Western  State  Normal. 

the  pleasurable  quality  is  always  necessary  to  the  learning  process.  The 
art  of  education  consists  of  selecting,  adapting  and  applying  means 
suitable  to  the  various  stages  of  development  of  the  child,  and  the  entire 
regimen  of  the  school  should  be  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  as  function 
precedes  structure  in  the  race  history  it  must  precede  it  in  education; 
that  when  the  impulse  of  growth  is  upon  an  organ  is  the  time  to  develop 
or  counteract  it. 

But  since  man  has  elected  to  be  a  civilized  being  he  is  often  com- 
pelled to  go  against  heredity  where  the  tendencies  of  heredity  and 
the  ideals  of  civilization  are  at  variance — to  head  upstream — and  this 
necessity  creates  most  of  the  educational  difficulties.  It  is  incumbent 
upon  education  to  develop  acquired  interests  in  addition  to  native  ones. 
Here  genetic  psychology  is  of  no  less  value  in  giving  the  educator  a 
knowledge  of  what  he  has  to  overcome.  Though  civilization  cannot  itself 
be  transmitted  by  inheritance,  it  is  based  upon  hereditary  peculiarities — 
the  characteristics  of  plasticity,  insatiable  curiosity,  extreme  imitative- 
ness  and  prolonged  infancy.  These  peculiarities  make  it  possible  to 
counteract  heredity. 

The  most  definite  thing  that  can  be  said  about  any  child  is  his  age. 
The  most  important  thing  to  consider  in  prescribing  for  his  educational 
needs  is  his  stage  of  development.  As  the  latter  has  a  somewhat  definite 
relation  to  the  former  it  is  customary  and  convenient  to  speak  of  the 
age  when  the  stage  of  development  is  in  mind.  With  this  understanding, 
and  allowing  for  individuals  who  develop  at  a  rate  sometimes  differing 
several  years  from  the  normal  one,  the  relation  of  age  to  the  most 
distinct  stages  of  development  will  be  shown. 

Genetic  psychology  recognizes  three  distinct  stages  of  development 
that  come  within  the  legal  school  age  from  six  to  twenty-one.  The  first 
of  these,  the  transition  stage,  includes  the  first  two  years  of  school  life, 
from  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  birthday;  from  the  eighth  to  the  twelfth 
birthday,  approximately,  or  the  third  to  the  sixth  grade,  inclusive,  is 
the  development  or  formative  stage;  from  twelve  to  the  close  of  legal 
school  age  is  included  in  the  period  of  adolescence.  In  other  terms, 
the  transition  stage  corresponds  to  the  two  primary  grades,  the  develop- 
ment stage  to  the  intermediate  grades,  and  the  adolescent  stage  to  the 
grammar  and  high-school  grades.  In  terms  of  educational  purpose,  the 
first  stage  is  when  the  child  acquires  his  environmental  equilibrium,  and 
the  first  two  years  of  school  life  are  required  to  teach  him  his  insignifi- 
cant place  in  the  world  and  to  put  him  in  possession  of  his  faculties.    In 

to  have  passed  through  in  a  short  space  of  time  all  the  great  culture 
epochs  that  have  marked  the  race  evolution. — De  Carmo:  Principles  of 
Secondary  Education,  vol.  I,  p.  179. 

As  structure  follows  function,  experience  of  function  must  have  been 
first  in  race  history. — Baldwin:    Mental  Development,  p.  64. 

The  childhood  of  the  race  was  very  long,  and  we  should  not  wish  to 
force  its  period,  brief  at  best,  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  The  weather- 
ing of  rock  and  the  formation  of  soil  afford  interesting  lessons  in  modern 
geology;  but  men  dug  and  planted  and  established  fruitful  relations  with 
Mother  Earth  thousands  of  years  before  geology  was  even  dreamed  of. — 
Hodge:    Nature  Study  and  Life,  p.  viii. 


Educational  Agriculture. 


25 


the  second  he  should  acquire  facts,  experiences  and  habits,  and  in  the 
third  he  organizes  his  acquirements  into  principles  and  ideals,  and  armed 
with  them  he  faces  his  future. 

The  accompanying  chart  shows  the  relation  of  age,  development, 
grade,  and  educational  purpose,  with  agriculture  projected  below  so  as  to 
show  the  corresponding  development  of  the  subject.  It  will  not  be  the 
purpose  herein  to  further  consider  that  portion  of  the  subject  that  pre- 
cedes the  high-school  work. 


Chart  I. 

Age.         6            7           8         9        10        11       12         13           14           15         16        17        18 

Grade. 

I           II 
Primary. 

Ill      IV       V      VI    VII 
Intermediate. 

VIII 
Gram- 
mar. 

IX         X         XI      XII 
High  school. 

Stage. 

Transition. 

Formative. 

Adolescent. 

Educational 
purpose. 

Environ- 
mental 
equilib. 

Experiences— facts- 
utilities— habits. 

Principles— system— science— ideals. 

Phase  of 
subject. 

Nature  study— school  garden— 
incidental  agriculture. 

Local 
agriculture. 

Analytic  agr. 
Sciences. 

Synth, 
agr. 

Genetic 
relation. 

Past. 

Present. 

Fu  ture-present. 

Character. 

Cultural. 

Economic. 

Scientific-economic. 

The  period  of  adolescence  represents  the  best  time  for  the  develop- 
ment of  ideals. — Bagley:    The  Educative  Process,  p.  223. 

Neither  you  nor  I,  however  specialized  our  knowledge,  know  anything 
really  worth  knowing  the  substance  of  which  cannot  be  taught  now  if  we 
have  pedagogical  tact. — Hall:    Ideal  School,  p.  485. 

Little  children  are  primarily  interested  in  the  common  objects  of  the 
world  because  of  what  they  can  be  used  for  or  what  they  can  do;  only 
later  in  life  do  they  become  actively  interested  in  the  qualities  of  objects, 
and  then  only  gradually.  Among  these  other  attributes  they  are  first 
interested  in  movements,  then  in  what  the  thing  is  made  of,  and  then  in 
the  parts  of  which  it  is  made. — Earl  Barnes:  Studies  in  Education, 
first  series,  p.  210,  "A  Study  on  Children's  Interests." 

Experiences  that  are  gained  incidentally  in  the  course  of  the  indi- 
vidual life  are  much  more  effective  in  modifying  adjustment  than  ex- 
periences gained  formally  for  this  express  purpose. — Bagley:  The 
Educative  Process,  p.  24. 

When  we  think  that  nature  has  thus  built  up  the  human  brain  to  the 
level  at  which  civilization  was  possible,  we  begin  to  see  the  true  impor- 
tance of  her  tuition  and  to  realize  that  a  plan  of  education  that  leaves 
"the  Old  Nurse"  in  the  background  is  quite  likely  to  fail  in  laying  the 
solid  foundations  of  intelligent  human  character.  It  is  in  danger  of 
posing  as  a  system  of  elementary  education  with  really  elementary  edu- 
cation left  out. — Hodge:    Nature  Study  and  Life,  p.  25. 


Chapter  IV. 


THE   KINESTHETIC   FACTOR  IN  APPERCEPTION;    REACTION 
AND  INHIBITION. 

Among  lower  organizations,  every  stimulus  causes  a  motor  reaction, 
and  "thought  is  motion."  Such  motion  is  automatic  and  invariable. 
Vital  functions  among  higher  organisms  are  similarly  initiated  and 
controlled.  The  spinal  cord  has  such  a  function  of  receiving  incoming 
sensory  stimuli  and  reflecting  them  outward  toward  the  muscles  as 
motor  impulses.  But  the  cord  may  transmit  unusual  stimuli  onward 
toward  the  brain — an  organ  which  lower  organisms  do  not  possess. 
The  result  of  such  stimulation  will  be,  normally,  an  outward,  or  motor, 
impulse.  With  infants  this  is  very  variable  and  results  in  random 
muscular  adjustments.  From  the  muscles  and  tendons  involved  in 
these  random  movements  other  (strain)  stimuli  reach  the  brain  while 
the  original  sensory  stimuli  which  caused  the  movement  are  continuing. 

Some  of  these  random  movements  result  in  pleasure  to  the  infant  by 
gratifying  a  need.  Where  such  random  movements  continue,  the  pleasur- 
able adjustment  may  recur,  and  by  repetition  come  to  be  associated 
with  their  cause.  The  ability  to  bring  about  a  desired  adjustment  is  the 
first  evidence  of  intelligence,  and  the  strain  sensations  resulting  from 
the  adjustment  constitute  "the  kinesthetic  factor"  in  apperception.  Its 
fusion  in  the  brain  with  the  sensation  from  the  organs  of  touch,  sight, 
etc.,  the  original  cause  of  the  muscular  reaction,  constitutes  apperception. 

Considering  the  entire  process,  the  incoming  sensory,  the  outgoing 
motor  and  the  conscious  or  intellectual  central  member  constitute  a 
unity  which  should  be  retained  in  education  of  the  young,  as  the  muscles 

The  ability  to  receive  impressions  and  the  ability  to  respond  to  im- 
pressions by  movement  have  .  .  .  all  through  the  animal  kingdom  a 
parallel  development. — Judd:    Psychology,  p.  18. 

We  are  acquainted  with  a  thing  as  soon  as  we  have  learned  how  to  be- 
have towards  it,  or  how  to  meet  the  behavior  which  we  expect  from  it. 
Up  to  that  point  it  is  still  strange  to  us. — James:  The  Will  to  Believe, 
etc.,  p.  85. 

Every  mental  state  is  a  fusion  of  sensory  and  motor  elements,  and  any 
influence  that  strengthens  the  one,  tends  to  strengthen  the  other  also. — 
Baldwin:     Mental  Development,  p.  440. 

Directly  or  indirectly,  all  incoming  nervous  impulses  are  transmitted 
to  the  active  organs  of  the  body  after  being  more  or  less  completely 
redirected  or  partially  used  to  produce  structural  changes  in  the  nervous 
organs.  .  .  .  The  sensory,  central,  and  motor  processes  cannot  be 
sharply  distinguished  from  each  other;  they  are  all  phases  of  a  single 
continuous  process,  the  end  of  which  is  always  some  muscular  activity. — 
Judd:    Psychology,  p.  22. 

James,  Hall,  Dewey,  Mosso,  Wundt,  Baldwin,  and  others,  are  preaching 
a  new  gospel.  They  are  saying  that  the  child's  thought  is  never  dis- 
sociated from  his  muscles;  that  every  idea  has  a  motor  aspect;  that  mind 
is  in  one  sense  a  middle  term  between  the  senses  and  the  muscles;  that  it 

(26) 


Educational  Agriculture.  27 

have  the  important  function  of  vivifying  thought  by  supplying  the  neces- 
sary kinesthetic  factor,  and  the  natural  tendency  of  all  sensations  and 
ideas  is  to  work  themselves  out  in  action. 

In  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  the  kinesthetic  factor,  the  school 
should  provide  the  child  with  the  most  valuable  stock  of  motor  ex- 
periences, to  be  used  in  after-life  as  interpretive  of  all  matters  trans- 
mitted to  the  brain  from  whatever  source.  The  purpose  of  elementary 
education  should  be  to  stimulate  and  direct  appropriate  reactions.  In- 
stead, the  mistake  has  often  been  made  of  unduly  suppressing  where  it 
should  have  directed  them. 

The  value  of  industrial  education  in  this  connection  is  to  supply  the 
pupil  of  the  lower  grades  with  this  kinesthetic  factor  in  the  making 
of  useful  adjustments  and  in  learning  the  nature  of  the  common  things 

functions  for  the  purpose  of  guiding  conduct;  that  an  idea  is  not  complete 
until  it  is  realized  in  action. — O'Shea:  Dynamic  Factors  in  Education, 
pp.  27,  28. 

The  activity  is  a  unit,  and  the  group  of  eye,  ear,  and  tactual  sensa- 
tions become  inextricably  bound  up  in  the  act,  and  perhaps  come  to  be 
symbolic  of  it;  the  reinstatement  of  one  of  the  sensations  serving  to  call 
un  the  images  of  the  others  as  it  sets  up  the  activity  for  which  it  stands. 
The  unity  in  the  reference  of  the  sensations  comes  in  on  the  side  of  the 
act.  .  .  .  If  it  were  not  for  the  connecting  activity,  there  would  be 
absolutely  no  ground  on  which  the  senses  could  be  brought  together  in 
their  reference  and  thus  become  more  than  mere  undefined  modifications 
of  the  general  tonus  of  consciousness.  .  .  .  It  is  only  as  something  is 
done  with  the  object,  and  the  various  senses  cooperate  in  the  doing,  that 
their  unity  of  reference  appears.  .  .  .  The  child's  first  objects  are 
really  certain  possible  activities  that  are  symbolized  by  certain  sensations 
involved  in  performing  the  acts. — King:  Psychology  of  Child  Develop- 
ment, pp.  36,  37. 

Every  sensory  impression  shall  find  its  adequate  expression  not  only 
through  the  vocal  organs  in  speech  or  song,  but  also  through  the  hand 
in  writing,  drawing,  moulding,  or  in  the  use  of  tools,  apparatus,  and 
utensils.  In  other  words  ideas  must  not  only  be  clear,  but  must  also 
become  vivid  through  the  appropriate  use  of  the  motor  system  of  the 
physical  organism;  we  must  have  not  knowledge  alone,  but  also  the  skill 
that  comes  from  its  application. — Professor  James:  Talks  to  Teachers, 
pp.  33-38. 

Vividness  of  mental  processes  is  produced  by  an  intensification  of 
the  motor  elements  accompanying  the  process.  .  .  .  An  increase  in 
the  intensity  of  the  appropriate  motor  adjustments  increases  the  stability 
of  mental  processes.     .     .     . 

The  inhibitory  effect  which  the  suppression  of  motor  activity  has  upon 
consciousness  ...  is  general.  .  .  .  Inhibition  of  the  motor  ele- 
ment tends  to  inhibit  consciousness. — Breese:  On  Inhibition,  Psycho- 
logical Review,  Monograph  No.  11,  May,  1899,  p.  58. 

Knowing  an  object  requires  kinesthetic  as  well  as  auditory  or  visual 
data  concerning  it.  Indeed,  to  be  precise,  knowledge  in  the  true  sense 
comes  in  the  back  stroke.  .  .  .  Motor  activity  furnishes  consciousness 
with  the  most  important  elements  for  psychical  development.  ...  . 
One  knows  what  a  thing  is  after  he  has  reacted  upon  it,  not  before.  The 
mission  of  eye  and  ear  is  to  give  us  second-hand  or  inferential  knowledge, 
to  reinstate  former  experiences;  they  cannot  give  us  original,  first-hand 
knowledge  of  many  of  the  vital  situations  of  life. — O'Shea:  Dynamic 
Factors  in  Education,  pp.  31,  32. 


28  Western  State  Normal. 

with  which  he  must  deal  all  of  his  life  and  whose  names  and  attributes,, 
used  metaphorically,  are  the  only  vehicles  of  higher  intellectual  ideas. 

Throughout  life  the  kinesthetic  factor  continues  to  be  the  unifying 
element  in  thought.  But  with  the  accumulation  of  a  stock  of  experi- 
ences, the  tendency  to  interpret  new  sensations  or  ideas  in  the  light  of 
the  old  of  similar  character  makes  the  resulting  adjustment  more  ap- 
propriate though  frequently  less  prompt.  This  change  occurs  through- 
out adolescence,  but  the  inhibition  of  the  tendency  to  prompt  reaction 
by  no  means  obviates  the  necessity  that  every  idea  issue  in  some  kind 
of  action.  Nor  should  the  appropriate  inhibition  be  destructive  of  the 
kinesthetic  factor,  since  the  latter  may  result  from  the  strain  sensation 
due  to  muscular  tonus  even  when  there  be  no  actual  motor  adjustment. 
The  act  of  attention  is  always  accompanied  by  such  muscular  tension. 
Ability  to  receive  and  ability  to  respond  always  go  together,  unless  by 
excessive  enforced  inhibition  knowledge  getting  tends  to  become  mere 
word  accumulation.  When  words,  rather  than  deeds,  are  made  the 
goal  of  education,  the  student  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  "learned  in- 
competent." 

The  optimum  amount  of  inhibition  for  the  adolescent  to  practice  is 
a  difficult  matter  to  prescribe,  much  less  to  regulate,  since  civilization 
demands  that  the  individual  inhibit  many  activities  which  heredity 
transmits  and  nature  seems  to  warrant.  The  sex  function  and  many 
social  delinquencies  are  examples  of  necessary  inhibition  in  which 
strength  of  normal  heredity  often  increases  the  task  of  education. 

Modern  psychology  sees  in  muscles  organs  for  expression  for  all 
efferent  processes.  .  .  .  Every  change  of  attention  and  psychic  states 
generally  plays  upon  them,  unconsciously  modifying  their  tension  so  that 
they  may  be  called  organs  of  thought  and  feeling  as  well  as  of  will. 
.  .  .  Habits  even  determine  the  deeper  strata  of  belief,  thought  is  re- 
pressed action,  and  deeds,  not  words,  are  the  language  of  complete  men. 
The  motor  areas  are  closely  related  and  largely  identical  with  the  psychic, 
and  muscle  culture  develops  brain  centers  as  nothing  else  demonstrably 
does.  .  .  .  For  the  young  motor  education  is  cardinal,  and  is  now 
coming  to  due  recognition,  and  for  all,  education  is  incomplete  without  a 
motor  side. — Hall:   Adolescence,  vol.  p.  132. 

If  there  is  one  form  of  incompetence  more  hopeless  than  all  others,  it 
is  that  form  which  arises  from  bad  schooling. — Davenport:  Education 
for  Efficiency,  p.  46. 

Motor  activity  does  not  always  manifest  itself  in  the  form  of  move- 
ment.— Judd:     Psychology,  p.  183. 

No  serious  thought  is  possible  without  some  voluntary  effort,  and  no 
emotion  ever  arises  without  inducing  some  form  of  action. — Judd:  Psy- 
chology, p.  66. 

Truly  spontaneous  attention  is  conditioned  by  spontaneous  muscle 
tension,  which  is  a  function  of  growth.  .  .  .  Muscles  are  thus  organs 
of  the  mind. — Hall:    Adolescence,  vol.  I.,  p.  183. 

Considered  from  the  neurological  standpoint,  inhibition  of  an  action 
is  secured  mainly  by  using  up  in  other  ways  the  energy  which  is  needed 
for  its  support. — O'Shea:   Dynamic  Factors  in  Education,  p.  13. 

Civilization  and  culture  tend  to  modify  and  refine  the  expression  of 
the  motor  innervation  accompanying  thought. — Breese:     Inhibition. 


Educational  Agriculture.  29 

There  is  great  moral  danger  on  the  other  side  as  well.  We  admit 
the  fact  in  such  maxims  as  "Actions  speak  louder  than  words,"  "Hell  is 
paved  with  good  intentions,"  and  latterly  in  recognizing  the  virtue  of 
one  who  "keeps  still  and  saws  wood."  The  moral  danger  which  comes 
from  usable  knowledge  drying  up  for  want  of  expression  is  increased  by 
modern  changes  and  inventions  which  tend  to  relieve  the  individual  from 
many  essential  experiences,  whereby  children  may  grow  to  maturity  in 
a  protected  life. 

With  young  children,  the  highest  ideals  are  impossible  of  apprecia- 
tion. Habits  are  formed  in  the  preadolescent  period  before  ideals  can 
become  effective.  Character,  on  analysis,  proves  to  consist  mainly  of  the 
sum  of  the  individual's  methods  of  reacting  to  ordinary  stimuli,  each 
adjustment  of  which  is  utilitarian.  When  ideals  become  effective,  as 
they  do  in  adolescence,  they  find  their  power  expression  through  utili- 
tarian channels.  Utilitarian  education  therefore  contributes  to  the 
highest  character  by  inducing  useful  activities  and  affording  them  ex- 
pression. 

The  central  organs  of  the  nervous  system  receive  stimulations,  not 
for  the  purpose  of  merely  absorbing  the  energy  which  these  stimulations 
bring  to  them,  but  rather  for  the  purpose  of  transmitting  the  energy, 
after  redistributing  and  reorganizing  it,  to  the  motor  system. — Judd: 
Psychology,  p.  134. 

The  high  standard  of  moral  and  intellectual  discipline  for  which  our 
schools  and  universities  have  been  distinguished  has  not  been  lowered, 
nor  has  the  pursuit  of  literary  and  historical  studies  been  checked  by 
the  inclusion  in  the  university  curriculum  of  those  scientific  studies, 
especially  of  those  branches  of  applied  science  for  which  such  ample 
provision  has  now  been  made. — Remarks  of  King  Edward  VII  at  the 
University  of  Leeds,  July,  1908. 


Chapter  V. 

A  PROBLEM  IN  ADJUSTMENT;  POSITION    OF    THE    VARIOUS 

SCIENCES. 

The  subjects  in  the  present  high-school  curriculum  most  concerned  in 
the  introduction  of  agriculture  are  the  sciences,  and  agriculture  will  not 
be  an  integral  part  of  the  high-school  course  until  its  relation  to  the 
sciences  is  satisfactorily  adjusted.  The  science  of  education,  if  it  have 
any  value,  should  afford  some  means  of  solving  the  problem. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  to  suppose  that  agricultural  materials  have 
inherent  qualities  which  determine  the  appropriate  place  in  the  course 
for  each  fact  or  principle.  Instead,  each  object  concerned  has  phases 
suited  to  all  grades,  while  the  only  difficulties  in  the  study  of  agriculture 
are  scientific  difficulties,  and  as  such  are  best  considered  in  connection 
with  the  appropriate  sciences. 

The  proposition  is  sometimes  made  to  teach  agriculture  as  a  second- 
ary subject  without  any  regard  to  the  fundamental  sciences.  So  taught, 
the  subject  must  remain  elementary,  for  its  elevation  depends  upon  its 
being  made  scientific  by  the  utilization  of  the  fundamental  sciences. 
There  is  no  permanent  good  to  the  reform  in  leaving  all  of  the  difficulties 
out  of  the  study  in  an  attempt  to  popularize  it.  Ambitious  students  pre- 
fer subjects  of  sufficient  dignity  to  challenge  their  powers. 

It  is  sometimes  proposed  to  defer  the  teaching  of  agriculture  until 
after  the  sciences  are  presented.  Such  postponement  would  be  at  the 
risk  of  starving  the  vocational  interests  that  are  nascent  in  adolescence 
and  which  it  is  the  chief  purpose  of  vocational  training  to  cherish  at  this 
the  time  most  favorable  for  their  nurture.  The  limited  number  of  high- 
school  students  who  can  profit  from  a  course  in  unapplied,  or  pure, 
science  will  not,  on  the  completion  of  such  a  course,  look  with  favor  upon 
the  necessity  of  abandoning  a  more  perfect  organization  in  order  to  re- 
organize with  the  grosser  materials  which  agriculture  affords.  And  the 
severity  of  the  selection  has  meanwhile  eliminated  the  more  practical  who 
-might  have  been  interested  through  agriculture. 

There  is  such  a  unity  and  mutual  dependence  between  the  subjects  of 
agriculture  and  science  in  the  high  school  that  simultaneous  presentation 
is  necessary.     Agriculture  is  not  supplementary,  but  complementary,  to 

The  admixture  of  technical  and  academic  work  will  give  better  results 
than  either  alone  (referring  to  domestic  science). — President  Eliot: 
Ed.  Review,  Feb.,  1908,  p.  124. 

It  is  a  grave  error  to  set  vocational  training  and  liberal  training  in 
sharp  antagonism  to  each  other.  The  purpose  of  the  former  is  to  pave 
the  way  to  some  application  of  the  latter  and  to  provide  an  economic  basis 
for  it  to  rest  upon.  The  equally  grave  error  of  the  past  has  been  to 
frame  a  school  course  on  the  hypothesis  that  every  pupil  was  to  go  for- 
ward in  the  most  deliberate  and  amplest  fashion  to  the  study  of  the 
products  of  the  intellectual  life,  regardless  of  the  basis  of  his  own  eco- 
nomic support. — Butler:  Training  for  Vocation  and  for  Avocation,  Edu- 
cational Review,  Dec.,  1908,  p.  474. 

(30) 


Educational  Agriculture.  31 

the  science  work,  and  in  the  course  presented  on  a  later  page  it  should 
be  understood  that  the  agricultural  topics  are  constantly  used  in  the 
teaching  of  the  correlated  sciences,  excepting  the  case  of  elementary- 
chemistry,  in  which  the  nature  of  the  subject  requires  that  it  be  intro- 
duced by  means  of  its  own  materials  rather  than  the  grosser  and  more 
complex  materials  of  agriculture. 

But  there  are  many  phases  of  agriculture  that  have  no  relation  to  the 
fundamental  sciences.  They  pertain  to  peculiar  skills,  practical  lore  and 
vocational  experiences  in  production.  These  may  be  provided  for  sep- 
arately, either  as  formal  subjects  in  the  program  or  as  extra-program 
or  collateral  exercises  in  the  home  or  elsewhere  in  the  locality.  This 
divides  the  subject  of  high-school  agriculture  into  the  three  distinct 
phases,  namely,  formal  as  correlated  with  the  sciences,  formal  and  uncor- 
related,  and  extra-program  or  collateral. 

The  only  difficulties  in  the  study  of  agriculture  are  scientific  difficul- 
ties, and  it  is  a  reproach  upon  science-teaching  to  assume  that  they  may 
be  better  dealt  with  apart  from  the  science  teaching.  The  correct  se- 
quence of  high-school  sciences  has  not  been  agreed  upon  and  the  making 
of  the  formal  agricultural  course  awaits  such  agreement.  The  most 
authoritative  statement  on  this  subject  thus  far  is  the  report  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Ten  of  the  National  Education  Association,  made  in  1893, 
though  in  many  respects  their  recommendation  is  not  adhered  to  in 
practice. 

The  position  and  sequence  of  the  various  sciences  have  been  determined 
heretofore  not  so  much  by  the  needs  of  the  student  as  by  certain  external 
circumstances,  such  as  the  preparation  of  the  teacher,  the  cost  of  equip- 
ment, the  requirements  of  the  law  in  the  teaching  of  hygiene  and  in  the 
certification  of  teachers,  and  the  relative  recency  of  the  different  sciences 
to  the  course — each  normally  coming  in  at  the  upper  end  of  the  course 
as  passed  from  the  college,  and  the  more  recent  having  not  as  yet  ex- 
hausted their  downward  tendency.  The  real  test — educational  values 
having  been  determined  upon — should  probably  be  partly  the  diminishing 
necessity  during  adolescence  of  the  actual  motor  adjustments  in  response 
to  stimuli  whereby  is  produced  the  kinesthetic  factor,  for  the  necessary 
strain  sensation  may  come  from  muscular  tonus  which  involves  no-  motor 
adjustment;  and  in  addition  to  this  is  the  corresponding  change,  during 
the  high-school  period,  from  coarser  to  finer  muscular  adjustments. 
These  two  tests,  rather  than  any  necessary  logical  sequence,  should  deter- 
mine the  time  of  presentation ;  for  wherever  there  is  a  dependence  of  one 
science  upon  another  the  dependence  is  mutual,  and  argues  as  strongly 
for  one  order  as  for  the  other.    Any  enlightening  principle  is  best  taught 

It  is  vital,  too,  that  principles  be  taught  with  processes  and  illustrated 
by  them. — Butler:  Training  for  Vocation  and  for  Avocation,  Educa- 
tional Review,  December,  1908,  p.  473. 

Subsidiary  claims  to  superiority  based  on  temporary  conditions,  such 
as  the  ease  with  which  a  subject  can  be  taught,  or  the  superior  quality  of 
teaching  that  may  at  any  time  be  manifest,  have  no  lasting  validity,  for 
if  a  subject  is  hard  to  teach  so  as  to  secure  good  educational  results,  all 
we  have  to  do  is  to  learn  to  teach  it  properly. — De  Garmo  :  Principles  of 
Secondary  Education,  p.  35. 


32  Western  State  Normal. 

at  the  time  when  the  student  is  made  to  feel  the  need  of  it,  and  there  is 
nothing  worth  teaching  in  any  science  which  may  not  be  taught  the 
adolescent  by  a  competent  teacher. 

The  position  of  the  sciences  thus  determined,  the  correlated  agricul- 
tural topics  may  be  placed  in  the  course.  In  this  correlation  the  sciences 
represent  more  of  the  sensory-intellectual  end,  and  the  agriculture  rep- 
resents, in  a  measure,  the  intellectual-motor  end,  of  the  process.  Agri- 
culture may  be  so  utilized  in  the  teaching  of  the  sciences  to  students 
whose  interest  is  mainly  in  the  sciences.  Until  the  time  of  election  of 
vocation,  which  may  be  late  in  the  course,  the  work  of  the  science  student 
and  that  of  the  agricultural  student  need  differ  but  little. 

With  the  election  of  agriculture  in  the  latter  part  of  the  course,  the 
phases  of  the  subject,  treated  disconnectedly  as  portions  of  the  funda- 
mental sciences,  are  gathered  and  related  to  the  subject  as  a  whole,  and 
this  synthesis  should  include  much  other  matter  that  cannot  be  treated 
in  connection  with  the  sciences.  The  unification  of  this  matter  on  its  own 
economic  foundation  constitutes  the  science  of  agriculture.  This  affords 
a  chance  to  idealize  the  vocation,  as  every  subject  should  be  idealized  to 
be  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  high-school  curriculum. 

Elsewhere  the  writer  has  treated  the  matter  of  the  course  at  consid- 
erable length  and  somewhat  definitely  formulated  that  portion  which  per- 

Vocational  training  is  to  be  postponed  as  long  as  possible.  It  is  to  rest 
upon  the  most  extended  general  schooling  which  the  individual  can  get. — 
E.  E.  Brown:    The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  459. 

With  children,  the  temptation  is  to  have  too  much  rather  than  too  little 
continuity.  .  .  .  The  higher  the  grade  the  more  the  topics  may  be 
correlated  and  coordinated. — Bailey:    The  Nature-study  Idea,  p.  132. 

In  every  case  correlation  has  been  successful,  when  the  instructor  was 
sufficiently  versed  in  his  own  subject  and  the  kindred  subjects  to  know 
them  and  how  to  bring  the  two  together  to  the  best  advantage. — Abbey: 
Normal  School  Instruction  in  Agriculture,  p.  29. 

The  past  is  fairly  united,  as  is  the  present,  in  the  proposition  that 
secondary  education  should  be  more  general  than  special,  that  it  should 
serve  as  the  prolegomena  for  future  study,  laying  a  sure  foundation  of 
knowledge  and  skill  for  subsequent  specialization. — De  Garmo  :  Principles 
of  Secondary  Education,  p.  29. 

The  human  plant  circummutates  in  a  wider  and  wider  circle,  and  the 
endeavor  should  be  to  prevent  it  from  prematurely  finding  a  support,  to 
prolong  the  period  of  variation  to  which  this  stage  of  life  is  sacred,  and  to 
prevent  natural  selection  from  confirming  too  soon  the  slight  advantage 
which  any  quality  may  temporarily  have  in  this  struggle  for  existence 
among  many  faculties  and  tendencies  within  us.  The  educational  ideal 
is  now  to  develop  capacities  in  as  many  directions  as  possible,  to  indulge 
caprice  and  velleity  a  little,  to  delay  consistency  for  a*  time,  and  let  the 
diverse  prepotencies  struggle  with  each  other. — Hall,:  Adolescence,  vol. 
II,  pp.  88,  89. 

Agriculture  as  a  science  is  dependent  upon  many  more  fundamental 
sciences,  such  as  chemistry,  physics  and  botany;  it  could  not  develop  or 
reach  a  scientific  basis  until  the  latter  were  also  placed  upon  a  firm 
foundation. — Carlton:    Education  and  Industrial  Evolution,  p.  206. 


Educational  Agriculture. 


33 


tains  to  class  instruction.    The  plan  of  the  course  there  set  forth  is  briefly 
indicated  by  the  following  synopsis: 


Chart  II. 

The  High-School  Course  in  Science  and  Agriculture. 


IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

The  fundamental  sciences  taught  with  an  economic 
application  and  by  means  of    agricultural    materials. 
Analytic  and  unorganized  with  regard  to  agriculture. 
Organized  from  the  aspect  of  the  fundamental  sciences. 
Agricultural  and  science  students  in  the  same  science 
classes. 

The  subject  of  agriculture 
organized  as  a  science,  includ- 
ing materials  treated  analyti- 
cally the  previous  three  years 
Vocational  ideals  inculcated. 
Science  work  continued  inde- 
pendently. 

Applied  science. 

General  Agriculture. 

Elem.  physics. 
Geography. 

Botany. 

Biology. 
Chemistry. 

Zootechny. 

Specialization,  diversification, 

rotation. 
Farm  equipment. 
Comparative  agriculture. 
Improvement  by  selection. 
Rural  economics. 

Soils. 

Mechanics. 
Tillage. 
Weather. 

Economic  plants. 
Field  crops. 
Horticulture. 

Economic  insects. 
Diseases. 
Fertility. 
Foods  and 
rations. 

Formal  and  extra-program  agriculture  ( vocational  electives.) 
Farm  animals,  manual  and  technical  arts,  assumed  services,  home  projects. 

Only  the  course  as  planned  for  the  agricultural  student  is  shown  here,  though  much  of  it  is 
in  common  with  the  regular  science  course.  Those  schools  which,  for  lack  of  funds,  time  or 
faculty,  are  compelled  to  give  a  briefer  course,  will  ordinarily  find  it  more  convenient  to  alter 
the  work  of  the  third  year  as  here  given  and  cover  the  work  of  that  and  the  last  year  in  one  year, 
thus  leaving  the  first  two  years  intact.  Further,  the  economy  of  time  may  be  accomplished  in 
the  smaller  high  school  by  the  alternation  of  the  first  two  years  of  the  course. 


3— ED.  AGR. 


Chapter  VI. 

FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  AND  ITS  TRANSFER. 

In  the  making  of  this  course  the  validity  of  the  recent  teaching  that 
formal  discipline  is  of  less  general  application  in  education  than  has 
often  heretofore  been  recognized  in  practice,  and  that  such  transfer  of 
training  as  may  be  made  from  one  field  of  work  to  another  is  due  to  an 
identity  of  elements  or  an  idealization  of  the  abstract  virtue  or  faculty 
common  to  both,  is  admitted. 

The  course  aims  to  satisfy  at  once  the  needs  of  both  the  agricultural 
student  and  the  general  science  student,  whose  aims  may  be  very  different. 
This  economy  is  justified  by  such  experiments  as  have  been  made  in  the 
teaching  of  science  for  its  own  sake  through  an  economic  appeal,  incom- 
plete and  meager  though  those  experiments  have  been.  The  union  of  both 
classes  of  students  in  the  same  group  for  instruction  is  a  great  adminis- 
trative economy,  and  it  is  believed  to  have  the  virtue  of  properly  bal- 
ancing the  work  so  as  to  make  it  more  valuable  for  either  class  than  if 
the  classes  were  segregated,  as  it  insures  a  real  economic  "struggle-for- 
existence"  motive  for  the  science  student  such  as  his  aim  does  not  fur- 
nish, while  to  the  agricultural  student  it  insures  a  "scientific"  science 
rather  than  what  might  otherwise  be  a  makeshift. 

The  "identity  of  procedure"  is  thus  relied  upon  to  make  possible  the 
transfer  from  one  purpose  to  the  other.  The  union  of  classes  is  further 
justified  by  the  selection  of  material  for  this  common  study,  as  far  as 
may  be,  from  such  as  has  a  value  to  either  if  taught  separately.  This 
may  be  readily  done  in  biology  without  destroying  its  unity,  while  in 
physics,  selection  is  made  of  necessary  principles,  leaving  the  greater 
portion  of  that  subject  to  be  treated  independent  of  the  agricultural 
needs.  Geography  is  regarded  as  not  being  properly  susceptible  of  dif- 
ferent treatment  for  the  different  aims,  if  it  be  made  "humanistic,"  as  it 
and  all  other  high-school  sciences  should  be,  while  elementary  chemistry, 

But  what  is  more  serious  is  the  generally  recognized  fact  that  pupils 
who  excel  in  school  are  often  beaten  in  professional  or  business  life  by 
fellow-pupils  who  ranked  below  them  in  class  standing.  The  school 
abilities  acquired  through  school  activities  are  not  in  these  cases  carried 
over  into  the  environmental  activities  outside  the  school.  This  is  due  to 
the  difference  between  the  matter  and  the  method  of  the  two  activities 
and  to  the  consequent  inability  of  the  pupils  to  make  success  in  the  one 
issue  into  success  in  the  other.  If  there  were  such  a  transfer  of  acquired 
ability  as  the  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  implies,  there  would  not  be 
such  a  difference  in  the  ranking  of  individuals  in  the  two  activities. — 
Heck:    Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values,  p.  44. 

The  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  assumed  that  the  mastery  of  a  cer- 
tain subject  gave  one  an  increased  power  to  master  other  subjects.  It  is 
clear  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  truth  in  this  statement,  provided 
that  we  understand  very  clearly  that  this  increased  power  must  always 
take  the  form  of  an  ideal  that  will  function  as  judgment  and  not  of  an 
unconscious  predisposition  that  will  function  as  habit.  In  other  words, 
unless  the  ideal  has  been   developed  consciously,   there  can   be  no   cer- 

(34) 


Educational  Agriculture.  35 

from  its  nature,  is  a  science  that  cannot  be  compromised  to  suit  special 
needs,  however  much  its  teaching  might  be  improved. 

There  is  thus  achieved  an  'identity  of  substance,"  an  "identity  of  pro- 
cedure," but  no  "identity  of  aim" — the  difference  of  aims  being  provided 
for  by  the  vocational  and  other  electives. 

tainty  that  the  power  will  be  increased,  no  matter  how  intrinsically  well 
the  subject  may  have  been  mastered. — Bagley:  The  Educative  Process, 
p.  216. 

It  is  not  denied  that  elements  and  relations  not  directly  useful  in  them- 
selves must  be  included  as  a  preparation  for  elements  directly  useful. — 
Heck  :   Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values,  p.  118. 


Chapter  VII, 


HUMANISTIC    SCIENCE,   APPLIED    SCIENCE,   AND 
AGRICULTURE. 

The  exact  scope  of  each  of  these  three  phases  of  the  combined  science- 
agriculture  group  is  not  well  defined.  All  science  should  be  taught  with 
a  humanistic  motive;  though  with  the  adolescent  the  stricter  economic 
appeal,  since  it  makes  his  attitude  that  of  an  active  controlling  agent 
rather  than  a  mere  passive  observer,  is  often  the  stronger,  while  agri- 
culture furnishes  the  readiest  materials  for  the  teaching  of  applied  sci- 
ence. Considered  in  the  order  indicated  and  as  hereafter  developed, 
there  is  a  gradual  transition  in  the  formulation  of  the  subject  from 
psychological  to  sociological  demands  which  should  establish  an  intimate 
dependence  between  "the  school  and  society." 

Lying  on  the  more  formal  or  psychological  side,  high-school  sciences 
have  not  succeeded  as  educational  subjects  to  the  extent  that  their  early 
advocates  hoped  and  expected.  Among  various  reasons  assigned  for  this, 
it  is  generally  conceded  that  they  have  been  presented  too  much  as  pure 
science,  and  the  proposed  remedy  is  to  make  them  "humanistic"  by  relat- 
ing them  more  to  man's  life  and  needs,  spiritual  as  well  as  physical.  The 
humanistic  motive  should  be  strong  in  the  teacher's  mind. 

Only  by  taking  a  hand  in  the  making  of  knowledge,  by  transferring 
guess  and  opinion  into  belief  authorized  by  inquiry,  does  one  ever  get  a 
knowledge  of  the  method  of  knowing.  Because  participation  in  the 
making  of  knowledge  has  been  scant,  because  reliance  on  the  efficacy  of 
acquaintance  with  certain  kinds  of  facts  has  been  current,  science  has 
not  accomplished  in  education  what  was  predicted  for  it. — Dewey: 
Science  as  Subject-matter  and  as  Method. 

It  seems  to  be  a  fact  that  the  sciences,  although  dealing  in  knowledge 
of  matters  of  the  greatest  immediate  interest,  and  although  concerned 
with  the  most  elemental  of  all  trainings  .  .  .  are  still  of  mediocre 
efficiency  as  factors  in  general  education. — W.  F.  Ganong,  Presidential 
Address,  Botanical  Society  of  America,  Boston,  December,  1909. 

An  interpenetration  of  humanism  with  science,  and  of  science  with 
humanism,  is  the  condition  of  the  highest  culture. — John  Addington 
Symonds  :    Culture. 

I  cannot  help  feeling  .  .  .  that  we  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  so 
organizing  the  sciences  as  instruments  of  general  education  as  to  fulfill 
the  high  expectations  which  some  of  us  formed  for  them  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  century  ago.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  sciences  of  nature 
and  of  man,  properly  organized  and  presented  as  educational  instru- 
ments, are  destined  to  be  classified  as  true  humanities. — President 
Butler's  address  of  welcome  to  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  1906.  (Quoted  in  N.  Y.  Independent,  July  8,  1909, 
p.  85.) 

Our  science  teaching  would  be  better  if  our  teachers  trusted  less  in 
the  abounding  merits  of  their  subjects  and  more  to  the  qualities  which 
personally  influence  young  people.  .  .  .  There  is  no  consistency  be- 
tween these  things  and  the  preservation  of  the  scientific  quality  of  the 

(36) 


Educational  Agriculture.  37 

The  difference  in  pedagogical  method  between  pure  and  applied  science 
is  due  to  a  difference  in  the  teacher's  apparent  motive  rather  than  his 
real  ultimate  motive,  in  which  they  are  educationally  identical.  Ap- 
plied science  is  more  readily  appreciated  by  the  adolescent  and  arrives 
at  the  same  goal  by  a  way  that  may  carry  more  students  with  it.  The 
application  of  science  to  something  utilitarian  necessarily  involves  the 
arts,  notably  agriculture,  which  includes  the  rudiments  of  many  arts  and 
sciences.  Hence  this  subject  becomes  most  valuable  for  the  teaching  of 
the  sciences. 

The  subject  agriculture  proper  is  divisible  into  a  number  of  distinct 
fields.  As  shown  in  the  course  of  study,  the  subject  of  "general  agri- 
culture," a  vocational  elective  which  is  intended  as  a  synthesis  of  all 
previous  agricultural  lore,  hitherto  given  in  fragments  and  now  organ- 
ized into  the  "science  of  agriculture,"  is  assigned  to  the  last  year.  In  the 
utilization  of  knowledge  in  this  science  of  agriculture  there  is  danger  of 
neglecting  quality  for  quantity.  The  amount  of  useful  knowledge  which 
will  have  accumulated  incidentally  in  connection  not  only  with  the  ap- 
plied science  but  with  such  vocational  electives  as  agricultural  arts, 
stock  judging,  assumed  services  and  home  projects,  all  of  which  are  con- 
tinuous throughout  the  course,  is  so  great  as  to  easily  obscure  the  more 
important  purposes  of  broadening  and  liberalizing  the  subject  and  of  in- 
culcating vocational  ideals. 

teaching.  It  is  simply  a  question  of  the  presentation  of  science  in  a 
manner  which  is  humanistic. — W.  F.  Ganong,  Presidential  Address, 
Botanical   Society  of  America,  Boston,   December,  1909. 

As  our  schools  grow  more  national  they  should  also  grow  more  human- 
istic. The  older  humanism  was  devotion  to  ...  an  abstract  ideal. 
The  newer  humanism  of  the  schools  cannot  well  dispense  with  the  best 
that  the  older  humanism  had  to  offer.  But  it  will  cease  to  be  abstract. 
.  .  .  The  best  that  the  school  can  do  to  guard  them  (youth)  against 
self-centered  commercialism  is  to  awaken  their  enthusiasm  for  some 
ideal  good  which  has  power  of  appeal  to  the  imagination.  .  .  .  We 
may  look  to  see  ...  a  new  humanism,  leaning  more  and  more  on 
science,  mindful  of  the  past,  patriotic  in  the  present,  and  looking  hope- 
fully forward  to  the  larger  human  interests. — E.  E.  Brown:  The 
Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  463. 

It  is  generally  agreed  .  .  .  that  the  initial  study  of  a  science  should 
be  from  its  economic,  or  human,  side.  The  child  should  be  introduced 
to  facts  and  principles  in  their  relation  to  his  life,  to  his  needs. — Bagley  : 
The  Educative  Process,  p.  232. 

Agriculture  is  evidently  to  be  a  pioneer  in  this  business  of  the  adapta- 
tion of  science  to  the  common  affairs  of  life  in  the  schools  that  are  at- 
tended by  the  masses,  and  if  this  be  true,  its  incidental  service  may  be 
even  larger  than  its  direct. — Davenport:  Education  for  Efficiency, 
p.  146. 

That  there  should  one  man  die  ignorant  who  had  capacity  for  knowl- 
edge, this  I  call  a  tragedy,  were  it  to  happen  more  than  twenty  times  in 
the  minute,  as  by  some  computations  it  does.  The  miserable  fraction  of 
science  which  our  united  mankind,  in  a  wide  universe  of  nescience,  has 
acquired,  why  is  not  this,  with  all  diligence,  imparted  to  all? — Car- 
lyle:    Sartor   Resartus. 

Learning  a  business  really  implies  learning  the  science  involved  in  it. 
.     .     .     A  grounding  in  science  is  of  great  importance,  both  because  it 


38  Western  State  Normal. 

The  vocational  electives  represented  as  running  throughout  the  agri- 
cultural course  will  include  the  subjects  of  agricultural  arts,  in  which 
training  may  be  given  formally  in  the  school  or  by  excursions,  and  the 
extra-program  subjects  of  animal  husbandry,  assumed  services  and  home 
projects,  all  of  which  will  be  considered  in  that  order  in  the  succeeding 
pages. 

prepares  for  this  and  because  rational  knowledge  has  an  immense  supe- 
riority over  empirical  knowledge. — Spencer:  Education,  chap.  I, 
"What  Knowledge  is  Most  Worth?" 

Education  for  efficiency  must  not  be  materialistic,  prosaic  or  utili- 
tarian; it  must  be  idealistic,  humane  and  passionate,  or  it  will  not  win 
its  goal. — Eliot:    Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  29. 

In  the  order  both  of  time  and  of  importance,  science  as  method  pre- 
cedes science  as  subject-matter. — JDewey:  Science  as  Subject-matter  and 
as  Method. 

Only  the  gradual  replacing  of  a  literary  by  a  scientific  education  can 
assure  to  man  the  progressive  amelioration  of  his  lot. — Dewey:  Science 
as  Subject-matter  and  as  Method. 

Science  is  the  most  precious  achievement  of  the  race  thus  far.  It  has 
made  Nature  speak  to  man  with  the  voice  of  God,  has  given  man  previ- 
sion so  that  he  knows  what  to  expect  in  the  world,  has  eliminated  shock, 
and,  above  all,  has  made  the  world  a  universe  coherent  and  consistent 
throughout. — Hall:    Adolescence,  vol.  II,  p.  544. 

The  future  of  our  civilization  depends  upon  the  widening  spread  and 
deepening  hold  of  the  scientific  habit  of  mind;  and  the  problem  of  prob- 
lems in  our  education  is  therefore  to  discover  how  to  mature  and  make 
effective  this  scientific  habit. — Dewey:  Science  as  Subject-matter  and 
as  Method. 

This  recognition  of  science  as  pure  knowledge,  and  of  the  scientific 
method  as  the  universal  method  of  inquiry,  is  the  great  addition  made 
by  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  idea  of  culture.  I  need  not  say  that 
within  that  century  what  we  call  science,  pure  and  applied,  has  trans- 
formed the  world  as  the  scene  of  the  human  drama,  and  that  it  is  this 
transformation  which  has  compelled  the  recognition  of  natural  science 
as  a  fundamental  necessity  in  liberal  education. — Eliot:  Education  for 
Efficiency,  p.  37. 

Agriculture  should  be  introduced  into  the  high  school  for  its  educa- 
tional value.  It  will  then  constitute  a  good  groundwork  for  later 
training  in  education  in  a  training  class  or  elsewhere. — Bailey:  Train- 
ing for  Teachers  of  Agriculture,  p.  33. 

I  often  wish  that  the  phrase  "applied  science"  had  never  been  in- 
vented. For  it  suggests  that  there  is  a  sort  of  scientific  knowledge  of 
direct  practical  use  which  can  be  studied  apart  from  another  sort  of 
scientific  knowledge  which  is  of  no  practical  utility  and  which  is  termed 
"pure  science."  But  there  is  no  more  complete  fallacy  than  this.  What 
people  call  applied  science  is  nothing  but  the  application  of  pure  science 
to  particular  classes  of  problems.  It  consists  of  deductions  from  those 
general  principles,  established  by  reason  and  observation,  which  con- 
stitute pure  science  No  man  can  safely  make  these  deductions  until 
he  has  a  firm  grasp  of  the  principles,  and  he  can  obtain  that  grasp  only 
by  personal  experience  of  the  operations  of  observations  and  of  reasoning 
on  which  they  are  founded. — Huxley:    Science  and  Culture. 

Items  of  knowledge  that  have  little  or  no  significance  in  the  practical 
affairs  of  life  .  .  .  may  nevertheless  be  necessary  to  a  system  of 
knowledge. — Bagley:    The  Educative  Process,  p.  233. 


Chapter  VIII. 

AGRICULTURAL  ARTS;  HABIT  VS.  JUDGMENT. 

American  education  has  been  very  deficient  in  the  character  of  train- 
ing intended  to  establish  correct  habits  in  pupils.  From  the  extreme  posi- 
tion of  regarding  the  aim  of  education  as  merely  a  matter  of  information 
and  understanding,  progress  is  being  made  toward  the  inclusion  of  drills, 
whereby  useful  manual  and  mental  operations  are  reduced  to  the  plane 
of  automatisms.  The  recognition  of  the  value  of  the  formation  of  correct 
habits  in  all  kinds  of  work  is  a  great  step  in  advance.  Character  itself  has 
been  defined  as  the  sum  of  all  the  habitual  responses  of  an  individual  to 
ordinary  stimuli.  That  the  repetition  of  a  process  may  have  further  value 
after  it  has  become  fixed  in  habit  is  now  being  claimed  with  some  show 
of  truth.  Certainly  the  new  education  will  recognize  the  educative  neces- 
sity of  habit  formation  more  than  did  the  old. 

Manual  skills  tend  to  differentiate  workers  from  the  great  unskilled 
class  and  to  make  specialists  of  them.  When  any  operation  becomes 
important  enough  through  frequency  that  it  is  profitable  for  the  operative 
to  perfect  his  skill  in  it  we  have  a  new  trade  or  profession  and  he  passes 
from  the  ranks  of  the  unskilled  class.  Where  this  law  is  free  to  operate, 
as  in  industrial  centers,  it  tends  to  result  in  an  intellectual  and  social 
stratification,  leaving  the  less  gifted  in  a  permanent  unskilled  class  com- 
posed of  transient  individuals  from  which  a  democracy  should  provide 
each  generation  an  opportunity  to  pass.  And  the  opportunities  will  be 
as  many  as  the  education  of  each  generation  provides,  since  mere  human 
strength  may  always  be  supplanted  by  natural  forces  if  there  be  some 
skilled  worker  to  direct  them.  These  facts  condition  the  character  of 
industrial  education  for  urban  populations. 

But  the  case  of  agricultural  education  in  America  is  very  different, 
since  the  number  of  manual  operations  peculiar  to  general  agriculture 
worthy  of  being  drilled  into  the  stage  of  automatism  is  relatively  small 
compared  with  the  number  of  cases  where  judgment  rather  than  habit 
finds  application.  It  is  true  that  skill  in  the  performance  of  an  opera- 
tion is  as  valuable  in  agricultural  as  in  other  industries,  but  the  great 
variety  of  necessary  agricultural  operations,  the  infrequency  of  occa- 
sions for  their  exercise  during  the  year,  and  the  relatively  small  number 
of  them  that  will  ever  be  susceptible  to  conventional  treatment  in  the 
school,  are  factors  which  determine  a  very  different  treatment  for  this 
from  other  vocational  education — a  feature  in  which  American  agricul- 
ture differs  quite  markedly  from  that  of  those  European  states  whose 
agricultural  schools  some  of  our  educational  reformers,  whose  vision 
rarely  goes  farther  countryward  than  the  suburbs,  would  have  us  adopt 
as  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  agricultural  education  in  America,  and 
implying  a  danger  which  the  success  of  the  other  form  of  industrial 
education  but  increases. 

The  success  of  industrial  education  should  be  judged  by  its  product. 
Outside  of  certain  special  suburban  forms  of  agriculture,  this  must  em- 

(39) 


40  Western  State  Normal. 

phasize  citizenship  as  well  as  material  goods.  Hence  the  Old  World 
agricultural  education,  which  is  better  suited  to  our  suburban  than  to  our 
rural  population,  and  is  much  like  industrial  education  for  the  manufac- 
turing population,  cannot  be  adopted  for  the  agricultural  masses  with  the 
same  prospect  of  success  that  we  may  copy  their  technical  schools  for 
other  industries. 

The  ideal  agriculture  emphasizes  diversification  rather  than  speciali- 
zation, both  for  economic  and  sociological  reasons.  As  a  natural  corol- 
lary the  ideal  rural  society  does  not  recognize  a  distinct  social  stratifica- 
tion. These  facts  go  to  the  root  of  the  question  of  the  proper  education 
for  a  democratic  rural  citizenship  such  as  the  Old  World  does  not  know, 
and  involve  too  much  discussion  to  be  further  pursued  at  this  place. 
Considered  from  the  purely  economic  point  of  view,  the  proper  training 
for  diversified  agriculture  aims  at  managerial  skill  in  which  judgment  in- 
volves dollars  where  habit  involves  dimes.  The  most  important  form  of 
manual  training  for  the  future  agriculturist  will  not  differ  very  mate- 
rially from  that  provided  by  the  wood  and  metal  work  of  the  best  manual- 
training  courses  of  the  strictly  urban  schools.  Of  the  strictly  agricul- 
tural skills  worthy  of  being  taught  in  a  formal  agricultural  course  most 
belong  below  the  high-school  age,  when  habits  are  acquired  with  greater 
facility  and  permanency. 

These  facts  do  not  negative  the  importance  of  a  proper  amount  of  in- 
struction in  correct  methods  of  all  kinds  of  manual  operations  in  connec- 
tion with  the  assumed  services  and  home  projects,  under  the  best  psycho- 
logical conditions  for  their  teaching — the  immediate  need  of  instruction. 
These  are  considered  in  the  next  chapter. 


Chapter  IX. 

COLLATERAL  OR  EXTRA-PROGRAM  AGRICULTURE. 

The  formal  side  of  agricultural  education  is  a  matter  easily  appre- 
ciated by  the  schoolman  trained  on  the  usual  academic  lines,  as  it  con- 
cerns matters  readily  formulated  into  courses  and  programs.  But  this 
formal  portion  involves  mainly  the  sensory-intellectual  side  of  the  learn- 
ing process,  which  should  be  supplemented  by  the  intellectual-motor 
ingredient.  And  in  the  grammar  grade  and  high-school  period,  coinci- 
dent with  adolescence,  there  is  born  the  vocational  interest,  which  should 
be  fostered  lest  it  starve  to  death  during  this  nascent  period.  These 
needs  are  supplied  by  extra-program  activities  of  an  informal  character. 
The  vitality  of  the  high-school  agricultural  course  will  be  drawn  from 
its  extra-program  phases  which  distribute  themselves  throughout  the 
course,  constituting  the  source  and  end  of  its  interests.  Its  variety  and 
informal  character  preclude  definite  formulation,  but  it  is  covered  by 
the  three  fields  of  animal  husbandry,  assumed  services,  and  home  projects. 

The  work  of  animal  husbandry  is  supplemented  by  the  zootechny  of 
the  fourth  year  of  the  formal  course.  It  aims  at  perfecting  skill  in 
stock  judging,  but  in  addition  gives  especial  attention  to  the  care  of 

Beauty  must  come  back  to  the  useful  arts,  and  the  distinction  between 
the  fine  and  the  useful  arts  be  forgotten. — Emerson  :    Art. 

All  our  industries  would  cease  were  it  not  for  that  information  which 
men  begin  to  acquire  as  best  they  may  after  their  education  is  said  to  be 
finished. — Spencer:  Education,  chap.  I,  "What  Knowledge  is  Most 
Worth?" 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  child,  the  great  waste  in  the  school  comes 
from  his  inability  to  utilize  the  experiences  he  gets  outside  the  school  in 
any  complete  and  free  way  within  the  school  itself;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  is  unable  to  apply  in  daily  life  what  he  is  learning  at  school. 
That  is  the  isolation  of  the  school — its  isolation  from  life.  When  the 
child  gets  into  the  schoolroom  he  has  to  put  out  of  his  mind  a  large  part 
of  the  ideas,  interests  and  activities  that  predominate  in  his  home  and 
neighborhood. — Dewey:    The  School  and  Society,  p.  89. 

The  strictly  vocational  courses  succeed  nowhere  else  so  well  as  where 
intimately  associated  with  the  nonvocational.  This  association  is  good  for 
all  parties.  It  not  only  adds  culture  and  refinement  to  the  vocational,  but 
it  adds  directness  and  initiative  to  the  cultural,  thus  turning  back  to  the 
community  a  product  whose  individuals  are  highly  schooled  in  specialized 
activities  and  therefore  likely  to  succeed,  yet  by  association  have  learned 
to  be  broadly  sympathetic  with  all  activities  and  with  all  classes  of 
effective  people. — Davenport  :   Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  48. 

While  vocation  should  neither  be  the  end  nor  the  means  of  the  educa- 
tional process,  yet  it  should  be  its  inseparable  concomitant. — Davenport: 
Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  28. 

The  application  in  some  form  should  always  follow  the  generalization. 
The  pupil  should  learn  from  the  start  that  knowledge  as  it  exists  in  the 
form  of  laws,  principles,  rules,  or  definitions  is  utterly  valueless,  unless, 
directly  or  indirectly,  it  can  be  carried  over  into  the  field  of  practice. — 
Bagley:    The  Educative  Process,  p.  303. 

(41) 


42  Western  State  Normal. 

animals,  a  matter  which  the  formal  work  cannot  successfully  do.  The 
work  is  by  excursions,  with  group  instruction  and  without  regard  to 
the  pupil's  grade  or  rank,  thus  affording  a  chance  for  the  stock  genius, 
who  may  be  compelled  to  accept  a  very  humble  place  in  the  usual 
academic  discussions,  to  come  into  his  own. 

The  school  must  depend  upon  the  locality  for  its  materials  for  this 
work  and  the  availability  of  stock  is  such  as  to  prevent  this  becoming 
a  formal  subject.  Reviews  before  and  after  the  excursion  are  the  best 
means  of  counteracting  the  great  depreciation  in  value  to  which  work 
of  this  character  is  liable. 

Assumed  services  have  the  peculiar  merit  of  developing  social  useful- 
ness, in  addition  to  their  value  as  a  means  of  instruction  Such  services 
should  establish  the  most  helpful  relationship  between  the  school  and 
the  community.  They  may  be  regular  and  definite,  such  as  the  testing 
of  all  articles  bought,  sold  or  produced  in  the  community,  or  emergency 
services  of  all  degrees  of  irregularity.  The  school  so  imbued  will  make 
this  the  field  for  much  real  missionary  work. 

The  peculiar  merit  of  the  home  project  is  the  occasion  it  affords 
throughout  the  course  for  real  vocational  experience,  instead  of  deferring 
the  application  of  class  instruction  •  until  its  close,  as  is  usually  done  in 
school  work.  The  project  should  be  appropriate  to  the  home  farm,  since 
it  is  only  there  that  the  essential  factors  of  ownership  and  responsibility 
may  be  given  exercise.  The  school  instruction  should  aim  to  enlighten 
the  tasks  which  the  student  is  compelled  to  perform  in  a  proper  domestic 
distribution  of  work,  and  so  enlightened  such  task  may  become  a  project. 

Once  selected,  a  project  should  be  continued  to  its  logical  close,  which 
is  normally  with  the  production  of  something  of  market  value.  It  thus 
becomes  the  student's  thesis  and  capable  of  development,  by  the  training 
in  the  scientific  method  it  gives,  into  a  thing  of  great  value  to  the  student 
and  the  school,  and  possibly  as  a  contribution  to  the  stock  of  knowledge 
which  alleviates  the  world's  hardships.  The  project  gives  the  student 
his  best  opportunity  for  applying  the  principles  taught  in  the  formal 

This  is  why  many  teachers  do  not  know  the  subject-matter  or  method 
they  teach;  in  knowing  the  elements  apart  from  the  environment  which 
gives  them  value  they  really  do  not  know  what  their  value  is.  This  is 
probably  the  weakest  point  in  our  teaching  force — the  ignorance  of 
teachers  regarding  the  environmental  relations  and  values  of  school 
studies.  Their  training  should  be  more  in  practical  sociology  and  less 
in  hypothetical  pedagogy. — Heck:  Mental  Discipline  and  Educational 
Values,  p.  117. 

The  instincts  of  property  which,  as  early  as  four  or  five,  found  a 
primitive  expression  in  aimless  and  trivial  collections  now  takes  a  rational 
and  human  form  (in  adolescence). — Bagley:  The  Educative  Process, 
p.  198. 

The  worst  gift,  perhaps,  that  an  evil  genius  has  made  to  our  age  is 
knowledge  without  training  in  efficiency. — Pestalozzi. 

The  outside  environment  must  be  made  into  the  meaningful  school 
environment  of  the  pupil,  and  there  is  no  need  why,  in  this  process,  the 
elements  of  the  outside  environment  should  be  misrelated  or  misvalued. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  in  so  far  as  these  two  environments  are 
similar  that  the  child  lives  in  school  a  life  that  has  functional  value 
outside. — Heck:    Mental  Discipline  and  Educational  Values,  p.  120. 


Educational  Agriculture.  43 

side  of  his  work,  makes  him  a  sponsor  for  the  school,  and  disseminates 
science  to  the  community.  It  can  never  be  developed  by  a  school  that 
keeps  its  students  away  from  their  homes.  It  is  incapable  of  measuring 
by  "credits"  as  to  its  informational,  much  less  its  vocational,  value,  but 
its  preparatory  value  is  unquestionably  very  great.  Until  some  system 
for  the  recognition  of  such  work  is  devised  it  may  automatically  receive 
partial  recognition  as  affecting  the  quality  of  the  student's  knowledge. 
To  education  generally,  its  value  is  as  a  corrective  of  the  natural  tendency 
of  academic  knowledge  to  grow  obsolete. 

We  really  retain  only  the  knowledge  we  apply. — Hall:  Adolescence, 
vol.  I,  p.  173. 

Actively  to  participate  in  the  making  of  knowledge  is  the  highest  pre- 
rogative of  man  and  the  only  warrant  of  his  freedom. — Dewey:  Science 
as  Subject-matter  and  as  Method. 

Properly  thou  hast  no  other  knowledge  but  what  thou  hast  got  by 
working;  the  rest  is  all  a  hypothesis  of  knowledge;  a  thing  to  be  argued 
in  schools,  a  thing  floating  in  the  clouds,  in  endless  logic  vortices,  till  we 
try  and  fix  it. — Carlyle  :   Essay  on  Labor,  p.  185. 

One  has,  however,  only  to  glance  at  the  history  of  any  specific  educa- 
tional system  to  recognize  that  in  its  inception  each  system  was  intended 
to  fit  the  pupil  for  some  special  form  of  life,  and  in  this  vocation  the 
studies  offered  really  had  a  place.  .  .  .  Fortunate  the  child  who  is 
brought  up  in  a  system  which  affords  him  ideas  fitted  to  his  own  day  and 
generation  instead  of  those  appropriate  to  the  times  and  conditions  of  his 
great-grandparents. — Angell:    Psychology,  p.  220. 

There  is  an  American  notion  of  long  standing  .  .  .  that  special 
training  for  any  particular  service  is  a  reflection  on  the  brightness  of  the 
person  trained.  .  .  .  This  crude  conceit  is  now  passing  away.  .  .  . 
Teaching  still  lags  in  this  respect  but  is  trying  to  catch  up. — E.  E. 
Brown  :    The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  459. 

In  order  to  insure  well-rounded  development,  mental  and  manual  work 
should  fall  to  the  lot  of  every  man  and  woman,  irrespective  of  all  arti- 
ficial class  distinctions.     .     .     . 

The  monastic  ideal  of  education  is  now  obsolete ;  education  should  be  an 
integral  part  of  life.  In  order  to  better  prepare  for  future  usefulness  of 
the  students,  school  work  and  practical  work  should  be  drawn  closer  to- 
gether. Coordination  of  theory  and  practice,  both  as  to  time  and  place, 
is  desirable.  The  customary  wide  separation  of  the  two  is  the  cause  of 
serious  waste  of  human  energy.     . 

The  world  needs  the  doer  and  the  thinker  united  in  one  individual. — 
Carlton  :    Education  and  Industrial  Evolution,  pp.  91,  92. 

Emerson  .  .  .  taught  that  the  acquisition  of  some  form  of  manual 
skill  and  the  practice  of  some  form  of  manual  labor  were  essential  ele- 
ments of  culture.  This  idea  has  more  and  more  become  accepted  in  the 
systematic  education  of  youth. — Eliot:    Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  37. 

The  vital  knowledge,  that  by  which  we  have  grown  as  a  nation  to  what 
we  are,  and  which  underlies  our  whole  existence,  is  a  knowledge  that  has 
got  itself  taught  in  nooks  and  corners;  while  the  ordained  agencies  for 
teaching  have  been  mumbling  little  else  but  dead  formulas. — Spencer: 
Education,  chap.  I,  "What  Knowledge  is  Most  Worth?" 


Chapter  X. 

THE  SEASONAL  ORDER  OF  PRESENTATION. 

The  motive  of  agriculture  as  a  high-school  subject  is  often  assumed 
to  be  merely  economic.  Previous  discussion  herein  has  been  intended 
to  show  a  much  wider  value  in  its  racial  and  national  motives  as  well  as 
its  educational  function  in  the  teaching  of  the  sciences  and  its  sociological 
significance  to  the  school  and  society. 

But  while  agricultural  science  covers  a  much  wider  field  than  that  of 
economic  production,  it  by  no  means  covers  all  that  is  necessary  for 
success  in  that  field.  The  ability  to  "hustle,"  more  than  the  knowledge 
of  science,  will  contribute  to  economic  success;  and  to  insure  practice  for 
this  necessary  element  to  success,  the  school  should  observe  the  order 
of  the  seasons  in  the  presentation  of  agricultural  instruction,  anticipating 
coming  farm  activities  and  making  them  subjects  for  school  consideration 
when  they  are  at  the  high  tide  of  interest  in  the  students'  homes.  Each 
agricultural  topic  will  have  its  best  time  for  presentation  within  the 
school  term,  and  this  agricultural  calendar  should  be  worked  out  by  each 
state  or  distinct  physiographic  region. 

What  the  pupil  is  unable  to  use  at  any  time  cannot  be  taught  him 
most  economically  and  efficiently  at  that  time. — O'Shea:  Dynamic  Fac- 
tors in  Education,  p.  41. 


Chart  III.    Agricultural  calendar  for  a  high  school 


September. 


October. 


Effects  of  field  mulches.  Soil  work  in  laboratory. 

Erosion  and  drainage,  field  observations. 


November. 


December. 


Identification  of  common-plant 

families. 


Seed  gathering. 
Legumes. 


January. 


Weather. 


Role  of 


Wheat,  oats  and  corn;  quality  and  variety. 

Corn  kernel;  structure  and 
composition. 


Pot  culture  of  wheat  and  legumes 
plant  foods. 
Destiny  of  crops. 


Fruits  and  fruiting  habits. 


Insects;  systematic  and  economic. 


Food  princi- 
ples; rations. 


Judging  fat  stock. 

Horse;  external  points  and  defects. 
Dairy  cow  compared  with  beef. 


Breeds  and  care  of  stock. 


Meat  and  milk. 


(44) 


Educational  Agriculture. 


45 


Courses  of  study  in  agriculture  for  secondary  schools  betray  a  marked 
neglect  of  this  vital  factor,  placement  often  being  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  the  season.  This  distribution  throughout  the  year  does  not  affect  the 
gradation  of  the  subject  by  years,  and  the  fact  that  the  correct  time 
and  sequence  for  agricultural  topics  is  identical  with  that  which  is  best 
for  the  correlated  sciences  further  demonstrates  the  unity  of  the  combined 
subject.  One  unfamiliar  with  the  agricultural  materials  and  principles 
is  not  competent  to  make  the  appropriate  calendar  for  his  school. 

Observing  the  seasonal  order  keeps  the  science  work  in  something  of 
a  flux,  which  the  devotees  of  formal  education  regard  undesirable.  But 
with  the  high  school  it  is  really  a  great  merit,  as  it  perfects  the  best 
relation  between  the  school  and  the  locality.  The  schools  need  more  of 
applied  sociology,  and  in  being  compelled  to  go  to  the  local  agriculture 
for  a  cue  for  the  formal  instruction,  the  school  becomes  indentified  with 
the  interests  of  its  patrons  and  those  who  pay  its  bills.  Therefore  it  is 
of  prime  importance  that  the  class  catch  the  step,  even  though  it  may  at 
first  be  able  to  do  little  more  than  mark  time  in  the  march  of  the 
seasons. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  show  in  the  course  of  study  on  a  previous 
page  the  seasonal  distribution  of  the  agricultural  work.  A  complete 
course  for  a  "corn  belt"  high  school  would  show  a  distribution  of  subtopics 
agreeable  to  the  course  as  given  and  the  accompanying  agricultural 
calendar : 


'forty  degrees  north  latitude) 

,  covering  several  years'  work. 

February. 

March. 

April. 

May. 

Vacation. 

Soils  of  the 

Effects  of  slo 

pe,  color,  drainage  a 

nd  texture  on 

Precipitation 

state. 

temperature. 

record. 

humus. 

Leaching. 

Erosion  and  drainage. 

Cover  crops. 

Implements  of  cultivation;  mulches. 

with  soluble 

Legumes,  manur 

es  and  fertilizers. 

Seed  purity  and  viability. 

Corn-breeding  plots. 

Corn  belt;  pop- 

ulation and 

industries. 

Bulletin 

Pruning,  grafting,  spraying. 

School  garden  and  demonstra- 

assignments. 

tion 

3lots. 

Yearbook 

Farm  records. 

statistics. 

Contour,  soil,  equipment,  crops  and  rotations  of 

local  farms. 

State  experi- 

ment station 

work. 

Poultry. 

Chapter  XI. 

OTHER  CORRELATED  SUBJECTS. 

The  psychological  moment  for  presenting  a  subject  for  study  is  when 
the  student  realizes  the  need  of  it.  Much  of  the  elementary  work  is 
done  with  other  incentives.  The  subject  in  which  the  agricultural  student 
will  be  found  most  deficient  in  preparation  is  arithmetic,  and  though  it 
is  not  regarded  as  a  high-school  subject  its  general  importance  and  the 
lack  of  ability  of  the  average  high-school  student  to  use  it  should  be 
sufficient  to  warrant  some  attention  to  it,  whether  agreeable  to  the 
pedagogical  fashion  of  the  day  or  not. 

Although  arithmetic  does  not  appear  by  name  anywhere  on  this  course 
of  study,  no  course  devoid  of  agriculture  could,  by  giving  arithmetic 
a  distinct  place,  provide  more  valuable  practice  in  all  applications  of 
that  subject  than  may  one  of  this  kind.  Moisture  determinations,  seed 
testing,  milk  testing,  soil  analysis,  and  the  physical  laws  pertaining  to 
liquids,  gases  and  machines  involve  all  of  the  applications  of  percentage, 
proportion  and  analysis;  agricultural  statistics  form  a  distinct  and  here- 
tofore neglected  phase  of  arithmetic,  including  the  making  and  reading 
of  curves  and  diagrams;  while  fertilizers  and  rations  of  the  third  year 
and  problems  in  farm  equipment  of  the  last  year  involve  every  chapter 
of  arithmetic,  from  the  simplest  mensuration  to  the  long  forgotten  sub- 
ject of  alligation. 

Arithmetic  presented  in  this  way  is  vital,  and  contributes  to  the 
agricultural  work  in  such  a  way  as  to  pay  for  the  time  and  space  it 
takes  by  requiring  a  precise  knowledge  of  the  agricultural  or  scientific 
principle  involved.  Ability  to  understand  and  solve  the  problem  is  the 
only  guarantee  that  the  principle  is  understood.  The  lack  of  correlation 
between  such  concrete  needs  and  the  mathematical  processes  in  which 
they  are  involved  constitutes  one  of  the  greatest  defects  in  the  teaching 
of  both  mathematics  and  exact  science.  And  what  has  been  said  about 
the  application  of  mathematics  to  this  subject  is  equally  true  regarding 
instruction  in  drawing,  a  regularly  graded  course  in  which  may  be 
made  in  connection  with  the  science  and  agricultural  work. 

(46) 


Chapter  XII. 

RETARDATION;    ADMISSION,    GRADUATION,    AND    ACCREDIT- 
ING OF   STUDENTS. 

Studies  in  retardation  of  pupils  in  the  elementary  schools  indicate 
that  when  a  pupil  is  once  retarded  it  is  usually  very  difficult  to  regain 
the  lost  grade  or,  frequently,  to  continue  without  further  retardation 
unless  the  degraded  pupil  be  removed  from  the  class  of  younger  pupils 
into  which  his  deficiency  casts  him.  The  most  successful  treatment  of 
such  cases  has  been  to  place  the  retarded  pupil  in  class  with  children 
whose  physical  stage  of  development  is  similar  to  his  own,  which  is, 
normally,  not  affected  by  the  cause  of  the  scholastic  retardation.  Such 
studies  also  show  that  better  intellectual  progress  is  made  where  the 
studies  in  which  the  deficiencies  exist  can  be  presented  along  with  some 
form  of  industrial  training. 

In  admitting  students  to  high-school  work  such  as  is  indicated  by 
the  foregoing  course  of  study,  in  the  light  of  our  present  knowledge,  the 
physical  stage  of  development  should  enter  more  largely  into  consider- 
ation and  the  scholastic  requirements  be  less  rigid  than  is  usual  with 
high  schools.  The  high  school  is  not  founded  on  the  elementary  grades 
but  should  stand  on  its  own  foundation,  else  it  will  not  only  continue 
its  present  tendency  to  grow  aloof  from  the  community  which  pays  its 
bills  but  will  violate  this  truest  standard  of  admission  of  students. 
While  there  must,  of  course,  be  some  test  other  than  the  physical,  adoles- 
cence, being  a  rebirth,  should  provide  the  student  of  good  parts  and 
intentions  and  suitable  age,  but  who  has  been  unfortunate  in  previous 
school  work,  another  chance  to  get  what  the  school  may  offer  toward 
making  him  a  more  efficient  citizen,  by  admitting  him  to  what  he  feels 
to  be  the  appropriate  companionship  of  his  equals.  To  make  such  a 
plan  practicable,  some  preparatory  work  in  English  and  mathematics 
may  be  found  necessary  to  repair  such  lack  in  the  rudiments  as  would 
impair  good  high-school  work.  The  teacher  may  sometimes  be  surprised 
to  discover  how  little  difference  there  is  between  students  with  good 
elementary  records  and  those  having  none,  when  it  comes  to  utilizing 
their  supposed  acquirements.  Similarly,  the  student's  ability  to  "do 
good  work,"  rather  than  his  success  in  getting  "good  grades"  merely, 
should  determine  his  satisfactory  completion  of  this  subject,  considering 
that  his  nonagricultural  branches  afford  appropriate  opportunities  for 
checking  up  his  scholastic  attainments. 

Graduation  is  usually  determined  largely  by  the  acquisition  of  a  re- 
quired number  of  "credits,"  each  representing  a  somewhat  definite 
amount  of  work  as  determined  by  authoritative  educational  committees. 
Secondary  agriculture,  never  having  been  either  standardized  within  the 
school  nor  made  uniform  throughout  any  system  of  schools,  suffers  some- 
what as  a  preparatory  subject.  The  various  distinct  phases  of  the  sub- 
ject differ  so  widely  in  character  as  to  make  it  necessary,  in  a  just 
estimation,  to  deal  separately  with  each  division. 

The  formal  side  of  the  agricultural  work  offers  few  difficulties  in  the 

(47) 


48  Western  State  Normal. 

way  of  estimation  according  to  the  rules  observed  for  other  subjects. 
The  portion  correlated  with  the  sciences  and  designated  together  as 
"applied  science"  should  readily  pass  as  an  essential  part  of  the  cor- 
related sciences.  The  portion  designated  "general  agriculture,"  and  re- 
ferred to  as  the  "science  of  agriculture,"  while  readily  measured  in  time 
units  for  the  purposes  of  the  school,  wants  an  authoritative  recognition 
and  definition  before  it  will  get  its  deserts  as  a  preparatory  subject, 
though  some  state  colleges  and  universities  are  compelled  by  their  own 
preaching  to  recognize  the  practical  lore  included  therein  in  admission 
to  agricultural  courses.  The  real  essence  of  the  subject,  which  best 
appears  in  the  operative  side,  as  represented  by  the  extra-program 
group,  rather  than  the  speculative  side,  defies  estimation  by  the  present 
methods,  and  its  unquestioned  value  as  a  complement  to  the  preparatory 
work  in  the  sciences  calls  for  such  a  sympathy  between  the  secondary 
school  and  the  higher  institution  as  will  insure  the  respect  of  the  latter 
for  this  work  when  properly  done,  and  fairness  in  the  former  in  evalu- 
ating and  vouching  for  students'  work.  It  is  not  the  agricultural  work  as 
such  that  constitutes  the  best  preparation  for  college,  not  even  the  agri- 
cultural college,  but  the  right  kind  of  science  work  which  only  the  cor- 
related agriculture  insures,  that  has  preparatory  value. 

The  question  of  college  entrance  requirements  is  a  question  of  rela- 
tionship between  institutions,  each  having  its  separate  responsibility  to 
the  public.  The  college  should  set  the  secondary  school  the  example  of 
considering  both  terms  of  this  relationship  with  perfect  fairness. — E.  E. 
Brown:  The  Making  of  Our  Middle  Schools,  p.  443. 

It  is  time  the  high  school  served  the  interests  of  the  community  first 
of  all;  and  if  they  will  do  that  thoroughly,  the  colleges  will  manage  to 
connect  with  them  on  some  terms  mutually  satisfactory.  If  that  is  im- 
possible, then  let  the  high  school  faithfully  discharge  its  natural  functions 
to  the  community  that  gives  it  life  and  support,  and  leave  adjustments 
to  the  universities. — Davenport:     Education  for  Efficiency,  p.  26. 

It  is  a  bad  state  of  things  when  the  question  whether  students  pre- 
paring for  college  should  take  one  study  or  another  in  the  secondary 
school,  could  be  decided  by  a  compromise  between  rival  college  depart- 
ments, represented  in  a  faculty  meeting,  without  a  moment's  consideration 
of  what  might  be  intrinsically  best  for  the  students  themselves  at  this 
stage  of  their  schooling. — E.  E.  Brown:  The  Making  of  Our  Middle 
Schools,  p.  442. 

The  purpose  of  a  well-considered  accrediting  system  is  ...  to  en- 
courage and  build  up  real  educational  institutions  of  secondary  grade. 
.  .  .  It  has  given  communities  the  means  ...  of  discovering  the 
deficiencies  and  likewise  the  excellencies  of  their  schools,  .  .  .  has 
quickened  the  intellectual  life  of  schools  and  of  whole  communities,  by  the 
immediate  touch  of  university  ideals. — E.  E.  Brown:  The  Making  of  Our 
Middle  Schools,  p.  376. 


Educational  Agriculture. 


49 


Chart  IV. 

A  High-school  Course  in  Agriculture  and  Related  Sciences, 

Showing  the  place  of  industrial  and  vocational  electives. 

The  nemesis  of  all  reformers  is  finality."— Huxley.  Science  and  Education,  chap.  VI- 


I.  Elementary  Physics  and  Geography. 


2 


Mechanics  of  liquids  (ocean). 
Matter,  force,  gravity. 
Mechanics  of  gases  (atmosphere);  barome- 
ter.   Heat,  thermometer. 
Meteorology. 

Earth  structure ;  minerals  (land  forms). 
Weathering ;  erosion. 
Principles  of  machines. 


Moisture  control  in  the  field. 

Soils ;  laboratory  and  local. 

Daily  weather  map. 

Soils  of  state  and  physiographic  regions  of 

U.  S;  climate  and  agricultural  products. 
Soil  temperature  and  texture ;  methods  of 

control. 


3  II.  Botany. 

Structure  and  function  of  flower ;  science 
of  sex. 

Recognition  of  chief  economic  families. 

Fruit  and  fruiting  habits. 

Cross  and  minute  structure  and  function 
of  root,  stem,  and  leaf. 

Plant  physiology. 

Seed  structure,  composition,  and  germina- 
tion (economic). 


II.  Industrial. 

Ag.  horticulture  and  field  crops. 

Dom.  sci. 

Manual  training. 


Ilia.  Chemistry  (first  half  year). 

General  chemistry  ;  text,  theory,  and  laboratory." 

Industrial  (second  half). 

Ag.-  feeds  and  fertilizers. 

Dom.  Sci. 

Manual  training  and  technical. — 


7  III6.    Biology  (first  half  year). 

Insects ;  ecology,  life  history,  injury,  structure,  repression,  collection,  classification. 
Fungi,  bacteria,  and  protozoa ;  germ  diseases  of  plants  and  animals,  repression.    Use- 
ful forms ;  inoculation. 

8  Invertebrate  Zoology  (second  half). 

Cell  structure  and  division. 
Additional  invertebrate  types. 
Humanistic  zoology. 
Systematic  zoology. 


9     IV.  Vertebrate  Zool.  and  Physiology. 

Animal  tissues. 

Skeleton  and  musculature  of  man. 

Dissection  of  type  vertebrates. 

Nerves  and  sense  organs. 

Comparative  anatomy  and  evolution. 

Variation  and  selection. 

Racial  welfare. 


in 


Vocational. 

Ag.  The  science  and  vocation  of  agricul 
ture. 

Dom.  sci . 


Technical 


Required. 


Ag. 


1,  2,  3,  (4).  5.  (6),  7,  (10) 

Dom.  sci 1.  2,  3,  (4),  6,  (6),  7,  (10) 

Man.  and  tech...  1,  2,  3,   (4).  6.  (6).  (10). 
Gen.  sci 1,  2,  3,  5,  (6).  7,  8,  9. 


Recommended.        Elective.  ."Z.   Total  years. 


7. 
(4). 


8,  9.' 
(10). 


m 

4V2 
4V2 
Mi 


4— ED.  AGR. 


PART  III.— Equipment 
Chapter  XIII. 

THE  LABORATORY. 

"When  they  come  into  the  school  we  do  not  put  them  into  books;  we 
take  them  into  our  laboratory.  For  instance,  every  boy  and  girl  is  put  into 
the  chemical  laboratory  and  the  physical  laboratory,  where  they  get  the 
first  principles  of  these  things,  so  that  they  shall  know  something  about 
air  and  water  and  soil.  Then  they  begin  to  write  about  these  things,  and 
they  begin  to  talk  about  them,  and  then  gradually  we  introduce  them  to 
books;  but  we  put  the  doing  of  the  thing  first  all  the  way  through." — 
H.  B.  Frissell,  Hampton  Institute.  Quoted  from  Carlton,  Education  and 
Industrial  Evolution,  p.  195. 

In  the  smaller  high  school,  where  there  is  little  likelihood  of  conflict  of 
classes,  as  where  one  teacher  has  charge  of  most  of  the  science  work,  the 
use  of  one  large  room  as  a  combined  laboratory  and  recitation  room  is 
preferred.  Besides  the  actual  saving  of  space  and  in  nonduplication  of 
apparatus,  there  is  a  saving  of  the  instructor's  time  and  work.  And 
there  is  the  added  advantage  of  a  tendency  to  unify  the  sciences  and  to 
keep  all  science  classes  in  touch  with  each  other's  work,  past  and  pro- 
spective— a  result  severely  guarded  against  by  the  usual  method  of  segre- 
gating classes  and  subjects. 

The  use  of  agricultural  materials  in  the  teaching  of  the  sciences  will 
contribute  to  this  purpose  and  emphasize  the  fact  that  sciences  in  the  high 
school  are  of  value  chiefly  as  one  knows  their  application,  and  the  only 
way  to  know  their  application  is  to  see  and  practice  it.  The  class  should 
see  the  setting  up  of  each  "experiment"  and  have  a  clear  idea  of  what  it 
is  intended  to  demonstrate.  And  all  work  prepared  and  demonstrated  at 
the  expense  of  considerable  time  and  labor  should  be  seen  by  and  ex- 
plained to  all  classes  regardless  of  rank. 

Then  there  is  another  pedagogic  advantage  in  keeping  the  student  in 
the  presence  of  the  demonstration,  or  at  least  of  the  apparatus,  whereby 
the  tendency  of  the  recitation  or  review  to  become  a  mere  verbal  presenta- 
tion of  what  the  text  says  may  be  avoided.  This  plan  tends  to  facilitate 
the  making  of  drawings  and  notes,  thus  keeping  the  textbook  subordinate 
to  the  science. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  say  that,  since  agriculture  deals  with  gross 
and  variable  materials,  the  laboratory  work  in  agriculture  may  easily  be 
made  more  technical  and  exact  than  the  occasion  warrants.  The  teacher 
should  remember  that  demonstration  rather  than  experimentation  is  the 
purpose  of  the  laboratory  work.     And  in  the  sciences  a  similar  mistake 

Some  school  laboratories  are  so  perfect  that  they  discourage  the  pupil 
in  taking  up  investigations  when  thrown  on  his  own  resources.  Im- 
perfect equipment  often  encourages  ingenuity  and  originality. — Bailey: 
The  Nature-Study  Idea,  p.  40. 

(51) 


52 


Western  State  Normal. 


is  made  by  prescribing  work  from  a  printed  laboratory  guide  which  the 
student  is  unable  to  translate  into  action  without  great  loss  of  time.  The 
teacher  would  much  better  have  a  hand  in  the  first  presentation  of  every 
demonstration  than  to  risk  the  loss  of  interest  and  time  for  the  sake  of 
teaching  the  "scientific  method"  by  the  more  exact  or  technical  sciences. 
After  manual  demonstration  of  the  principle  by  the  teacher  the  student 
may  profitably  repeat  it  for  his  own  satisfaction  and  at  his  own  expense 
of  time. 

The  science  room  should  be  near  the  ground,  with  easy  access  to  out- 
doors, to  a  greenhouse,  and  to  another  room  suitable  as  a  storeroom,  a 
shop,  and  a  place  for  work  with  grosser  materials.  The  accompanying 
plan  (fig.  4)  shows  such  a  room  with  the  details  of  furniture,  the  base- 
ment beneath  it  serving  as  the  shop  and  storeroom. 

SCIENCE   ROOM    FOR   A    SMALL    HIGH    SCHOOL. 
vertical  and   horizontal    beams 
looker  for  apparatus^  * 


sink--  _  ._ 
coarse  balance 


soil    table 

and   stock  soils- 

blackboard 


demonstra- 
tor's table 

chairs  with 
writing  arms 


basement-- 

hood. 

ch  tmney  - 

chemical    supplies 
s'mk  - 


tabic 

open   shelves  for  v 

chemical   reagents 


fine 
balance 

Fig.  4. 


blackboard 
laboratory  desks 


The  requirements  and  equipment  for  the  various  kinds  of  work  will  include  the 
following : 

Biology:  Plenty  of  north  light,  chairs,  long  table,  individual  drawers  and  shelves, 
museum,  sink,  instructor's  blackboard. 

Chemistry:  High  desks  with  individual  spaces,  drawers,  lockers  and  supplies, 
fine  balance,  sinks,  reagent  shelf,  supply  cupboard,  table,  hood. 

Soil  Physics:  Ignition  hood,  table,  soil  bins,  blackboard,  coarse  balance,  sink, 
upright  and  horizontal  beams,  proximity  to  chemistry  and  physics. 

Physics:  Locker  for  apparatus,  upright  and  horizontal  beams,  coarse  balance, 
sink,  demonstrator's  table,  blackboard. 

Greenhouse:   Light,  heat,  water,  doors  to  laboratory,  basement  and  outdoors. 

The  chimnev  is  so  placed  as  to  provide  flues  for  the  hood,  the  greenhouse  and  the 
basement.  Its  necessity  is  independent  of  the  regular  system  of  heating.  Where 
gas  may  be  had  it  should  be  provided,  otherwise  alcohol  and  gasoline  may  be  used. 
The  accompanying  list  of  apparatus  includes  provision  for  both  systems  but  con- 
templates the  omission  of  such  as  Is  not  needed,  depending  upon  the  availability 
of  gas. 


Educational  Agriculture. 


53 


For  recitation  purposes,  chairs  (with  writing  arms)  sufficient  to  seat  the  largest 
class  are  placed  in  the  open  space  facing  the  demonstrator's  table  and  blackboard. 
This  end  of  the  room  also  contains  maps,  charts,  library  and  museum.  Some  of  the 
other  features  of  furniture  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  figures. 


JFTu 


Fig.  5. 

The  details  shown  in  figure  5,  in  order  from  left  to  right,  consist  of:  (a)  hood 
for  ignition,  enclosing  flue,  cost,  $7;  (6)  open  shelves  for  chemical  reagents,  cost,  $3; 
(c)  shelf  above  sink  for  siphoning  standard  solutions,  cost,  $2.50;  (d)  draining  board 
at  end  of  sink,  cost,  $1.50;  (e)  shelf  for  fine  balance,  cost,  $2.  The  figure  also 
shows  horizontal  and  vertical  beams.  No  attempt  is  made  to  show  these  features  in 
their  proper  relation  as  indicated  in  the  previous  illustration  (fig.  4). 


Fig.  6. 


54  Western  State  Normal. 

The  locker  for  apparatus  (fig.  6)  is  made  of  pine,  with  flat  top,  base  enclosed 
all  around,  dust-proof  joints  and  doors,  and  coated  with  an  oil  stain.  It  is  designed 
to  accommodate  all  of  the  physics  apparatus  and  the  larger  pieces  of  chemical  appa- 
ratus; cost,  $26. 

The  remaining  chemical  apparatus,  together  with  the  glassware  and  chemicals, 
go  into  the  cupboard  of  chemical  supplies.  Supplies  peculiar  to  biology  are  accom- 
modated in  the  shelves  and  lockers  of  that  department,  while  supplies  peculiar  to 
agriculture,  as  well  as  the  tools,  should  be  provided  for  in  the  basement,  excepting 
such  as  are  needed  for  the  more  careful  soil  work. 

In  the  selection  of  all  of  the  equipment,  a  minimum  cost,  such  as  the 
smaller  high  school  must  consider,  was  constantly  kept  in  mind.  No 
school  should  expect  to  reduce  this  estimate  and  be  able  to  do  the  char- 
acter of  work  contemplated.  Instead  it  will  probably  be  found  necessary 
to  provide  more  liberally  for  the  duplication  of  apparatus  where  the  in- 
dividuals of  the  class  are  assigned  the  same  experiment.  In  the  enumer- 
ation which  follows,  the  lists  are  made  complete,  but  where  the  same 
pieces  may  be  used  for  several  departments  the  price  is  given  but  once — in 
the  list  to  which  it  most  properly  should  be  charged. 

Chemicals.     ($35.78).  Price. 

Sulphuric  acid  c.  p.,  4  lbs $0  75 

Hydrochloric  acid  c.  p.,  6  lbs 85 

Nitric  acid  c.  p.,  7  lbs , 1  10 

Acetic  acid,   glacial,  2  lbs 1  02 

Oxalic  acid,  commercial,  1  lb 12 

Ammonium  hydrate,  4  lbs 76 

chloride,  1  lb 34 

"           nitrate,  2  lbs 90 

alum,  1  lb 08 

Potassium  alum,   1   lb 08 

"           hydrate,   2   lbs 60 

"           carbonate   (pearl  ash) ,  1  lb 15 

"           sulphate  crystals,  2  lbs 30 

"          iodide  cryst.,  pure,  2  oz 60 

"          nitrate  c.  p.,  1  lb 37 

chloride  c.  p.,  1  lb 37 

"          permanganate  c.  p.,  1  lb 70 

chlorate,  cryst.,   2  lbs 30 

Potassium,  %  oz 45 

Sodium,  8  oz 70 

"       carbonate,  crystal,  2  lbs 25 

"       hydroxide,  sticks,  3  lbs 75 

"        nitrate  c.  p.,  2  lbs 60 

chloride,    2    lbs 10 

sulphate,  1  lb 10 

"        sulphite,  crystal,  1  lb 10 

Calcium  chloride,  anhydrous,  fused,  3  lbs 60 

"         fluoride,   1   lb 10 

"         sulphate,  gypsum,  1  lb 10 

"         sulphate,  plaster  of  Paris,  5  lbs 15 

"         oxide,  quicklime,  3  lbs 30 

"        carbonate,  marble  chips,  5  lbs 25 

Magnesium  sulphate  c.  p.,  1  lb 

"           ribbon,  1  oz 60 

Ferrous  sulphide,  1  lb 10 

Ferric  chloride,   4   oz 15 

"       sulphide,   5   lbs 35 

Iron  filings,  2  lbs 10 

Copper  foil,    1    lb 90 

"        nitrate,  8  oz 25 


Educational  Agriculture.  55 

Copper  oxide,  8  oz $o  35 

"        sulphate,    5    lbs 50 

Barium  chloride,  crystals,  2  lbs 25 

"        peroxide,   V2   lb 35 

Lead  nitrate,    1    lb 18 

"      peroxide,    1    lb 36 

Red  lead,  1  lb 12 

Mercury,    6    lbs 4  80 

Red  oxide  of  mercury,  3  oz 30 

Mercuric  oxide,  4  oz 40 

Silver  foil,    Vn    oz 60 

"       nitrate,    1    oz 50 

Carbon   bisulphide,   1   lb 20 

Manganese  dioxide,  95  per  cent,  5  lbs 25 

Granulated  tin,  1  lb 60 

Antimony,  powdered,  Y2  lb 25 

Strontium  chloride,  1  oz 10 

Bismuth,    1   oz 30 

Iodine  crystals,  pure,  2  oz 75 

Red  phosphorus,   1  oz 15 

Yellow  phosphorus,  8  oz 50 

Borax,    1    lb 18 

Zinc  granules,  2  lbs .' 32 

Flowers  of  sulphur,  1  lb 08 

Roll  sulphur,  5  lbs 25 

Bleaching  powder,  1  lb 10 

Litmus,  1  oz 10 

Phenolphthalein,    1   oz 65 

Cochineal,   2   oz 16 

Alcohol,  wood,    V2    gal 50 

"        ethyl,  95  per  cent,  %  gal 1  50 

"         denatured,  2  gal 1  50 

Gasoline,   2   gal 40 

Corn  starch,  1  lb 10 

Cane  sugar,  2  lbs 20 

Bone  black,  2  lbs 15 

Rosin,  1  lb 10 

Paraffin,  1  lb 15 

Tallow,  1  lb 15 

Beeswax,  1  lb 65 

Chemical  Apparatus.     ($52.72). 

Bunsen   burners,   2 $0  66 

Gasoline  burner.     See  "Agriculture." 

Spirit  lamps,  4  oz.,  side  tubulation,  4 1  20 

Asbestos  mat,  24xl8x%6 66 

Wing  tip  for  Bunsen  burner 18 

Desiccator,  6-inch,  with  porcelain  bottom 1  00 

Hessian  crucibles,  large  5's,  1  nest 18 

Royal  Berlin  crucibles  with  covers,  41  mm.,  1  doz 2  00 

Pipe  stem  triangles,  No.  4,  8 50 

Brass  crucible  tongs,  9-inch,  1  pair 48 

Tripods  for  spirit  lamp,  2 50 

Pieces  wire  gauze,  5x5  inches,  2 30 

Copper  retort,  2  pints 2  85 

Test  tube  holders,  brass,  2  pairs 

Platinum  wire,  4-inch,  No.  26 

Blowpipe    20 

Deflagration  spoon,  12  mm 

Sand  bath,  6-inch 22 

Iron  ring  stands,  3  rings  each,  2 1  10 


56  Western  State  Normal. 

Porcelain  evaporating  dishes,  No.  7,  3% -inch,  8 $1  20 

Steel  forceps,  6-inch,  1  pair 15 

Balance,  "Kistler"  1  eg.  to  100  g 12  00 

Brass  weights  in  block,  1  eg.  to  100  g.,  1  set 1  35 

Brass  forceps,   1   pair 16 

Test  tube  racks  for  24  test  tubes,  2 80 

Test  tube  brushes,  with  sponge,  3 25 

Test  tube  brushes,  small,  3 12 

Lead  dish,   3-inch 22 

Mortar  and  pestle,  Wedgewood,  3-inch 44 

Wash  bottles,  complete,  stopper  and  tubes,  24  oz.,  2 1  00 

Gas  generating  bottles,  complete,  3 1  50 

Calcium  chloride  tubes,  150  mm.,  2 24 

Funnel  stands,  4  holes  each,  2 1  30 

Pneumatic  trough 1  10 

Chemical  thermometers,  10°  to  110°  c,  6 4  20 

Chemical  thermometers,  20°  to  200°,  2 2  00 

Earthenware  slop  jars,  3  gal.,  2 60 

Asbestos  wool,  %  lb 20 

Glass  wool,  fine,  4  oz 1  36 

Drying  oven    (at  tinners) 3  50 

Horn   scoop,   3x3^ 22 

Horn  spoon,  6-inch 18 

Piece  magnetized  clock  spring,  6-inch 10 

Mohr's  clamps,  small,  2 22 

Mohr's  clamps,  medium,  2 30 

Hoffman's  pinch  cocks,  2 44 

Triangular  file,  rattail  file 25 

Litmus  paper,  red  and  blue,  4  sheets 32 

Filter  paper,  600  4-inch,  200  6-inch,  8  pkgs 1  00 

Corks,  regular  length,  as  follows:    one  doz.  each  Nos.  3  to  16  and 

18  and  20,  16  doz 2  54 

Cork  borers,  1-6,  1  set 80 

Rubber  tubing  and  rubber  stoppers.    See  "Elementary  Physics." 
Dropper  bottles.    See  "Biology." 

Glassware.     ($28.16). 

Test  tubes  of  following  sizes:    5  x  8,  50  cents;  6  x  %,  56  cents; 

7  x  %,  80  cents;  2  doz.  each $1  86 

Beakers  1  to  4,  6  nests 2  10 

Flasks  8  oz.  and  16  oz.,  3  each 1  02 

Erlenmeyer  flask  6  oz.,  4 72 

Thistle  tube  funnels,  4 27 

Funnels  60°  2%  inches,  Vz  doz 54 

Funnels,  3-inch,  4-inch,  6-inch,  2  each 1  52 

Glass  tubing,  3  ft.  long,  assorted,  following  sizes:     %e,   %,  %eJ 

6    lbs 2  40 

Watch  glasses,  3%-in.,  4 37 

Retorts,  8  oz.  with  receivers,  2 74 

Square  blue  glass,  3  x  3,  1  doz 91 

Stirring  rods,  1  doz 16 

Burettes  50  cc,  2 2  20 

Pipette  25  cc.  volumetric. 

Pipette,  Mohr's  10  cc.  graduated 40 

Cylindrical  graduates  100  cc,  Vz  doz 2  40 

Cylindrical  graduates  25  cc,  %  doz t  20 

Bottles  wide  mouth,  "prescription,"  32  oz.,  8  oz.,  4  oz.,  1  doz.  each. .  2  35 

Bottles  "tincture"  mushroom  stopper,  32  oz.,  16  oz.,  8  oz.,  1  doz  ea.,  4  35 

Bottles  "salt  mouth"  mushroom  stopper,  32  oz.,  1  doz 2  40 


Educational  Agriculture.  57 

Elementary  Physics.     ($30.65). 

Spirit  level $1  25 

Model   lifting  pump .' 1  65 

Model  force  pump 2  00 

Meter  sticks,  brass  tipped,  ^  doz 1  40 

Lever  holders,   3 1  20 

Universal  weights,  1  set 2  00 

Brass  pulleys  with  hooks,  %  doz 1  00 

Spring  scales,  Vz  to  5  lbs.  %  doz 1  40 

Balance  and  weights.    See  "Chemical  Apparatus." 

Capillary  tubes,  1  set 95 

Hydrometer,  paraffined  stick 25 

Hydrometer.     See  Quevenne  lac,  "Agriculture." 

Hydrometer  jar,  15  x  IVz 40 

Thermometer.    See  "Chemical  Apparatus." 

3-scale  thermometer,  F.  R.  C 80 

Hypsometer 3  00 

Protractor,    metal 60 

Barometer  tube  with  bend  and  bulb 55 

Boyle's  law  stand 2  00 

Hall's  pressure  gauge 95 

Glass  tubes.     See  "Glassware." 

Rubber  tubing,  white,  as  follows:  12  ft.  %  inch,  6  ft.  %e  inch — 

18   ft 2  10 

Rubber  tubing,  red  antimony,  %g  inch,  6  ft 54 

Rubber  stoppers  as  follows :     4  each  2-hole,  Nos.  7,  8,  11 2  01 

4  solid,  No.  6 35 

1  2-hole,  No.  12 30 

Cork  stoppers,  flat,  as  follows:     1  doz.  each,  diameter  1%,  2,  2%, 

2V2  inches,  4  doz 1  45 

Cork  borers  and  cork  stoppers,  regular  length.     See  "Chemical 

Apparatus." 

Sheet  lead  %6  inch,  5  lbs 64 

Mercury.     See  "Chemicals." 

Shot,  No.  5,  5  lbs 40 

Assorted  rubber  bands,  1  box 80 

Copper  wire,  No.  18,   *£lb 33 

Iron  wire,  soft,  No.  28,  1  lb 18 

Spool  each,  silk  thread,  linen  thread 15 

Biology.     ($109.26). 

Microscopes,   2 $70  00 

Bell  glasses,  14-inch,  2  gal.,  2 3  30 

Tripod  magnifiers,  1  doz 4  80 

Dissecting    microscope 1  00 

Slides,  1  oz.  cover  glasses,  1  gross 1  90 

Razor    1  00 

Insect  pins,  3  sizes,  300 39 

Dissecting  sets  (scalpel,  scissors,  forceps,  2  needles),  %  doz 5  00 

Formaldehyde  40  cents,  ether  75  cents,  potassium  "cyanide"  45  . 

cents;    %   lb.  each *  60 

Wide  mouth,  8  oz.  bottle.     See  "Glassware."  # 

Carbon  bisulphide  and  potassium  permanganate.    See  *  Chemicals. 

Granite  pans,  9  x  12,  shallow,  1  doz 4  00 

Medicine  droppers,  1  doz Jjj 

Dropper  bottles,  glass  bulb,  %  doz J  j™ 

Petri    dishes,    10 J  x" 

Agar-agar,  1  lb *  °g 

Chloroform,  1  lb ™ 

Benzole,  6  oz ;J{ 

Glycerine,   6   oz JU 


58  Western  State  Normal. 

Rochelle  salts,  8  oz $o  10 

Battery  jars,  9x12,  2  gal.,  2 2  00 

Battery  jars,  6  x  8,  1  gal.,  y2  doz 2  00 

Specie  jars,  gal.,  V2  doz 2  52 

Window  glass,   10  x  10,   1  doz 1  00 

Lantern  globes,   V2   doz 1  00 

Assorted  rubber  bands,   %   lb 80 

Gummed  labels,  2  sizes,  2  boxes 25 

Silk  thread,  linen  thread,  flat  corks,  rubber  tubing,  rubber  stop- 
pers.    See  "Elementary  Physics." 
Thistle  tubes,  cork  corers,     See  "Chemical  Apparatus." 
Mosquito  bar,  white.    See  "Agriculture." 

Agriculture.    ($102.90). 

Bucket    spray,    "Success" $7  00 

Extension  rod,  8  ft 2  50 

Extension  hose,   15  ft 1  50 

Nozzles,  conical,  "Vermorel,"  50  cents,  and  "Mistry,"  $1 1  50 

Nozzle,  flat,  "Bordeaux" 35 

Pruning  saw,  adjustable 1  25 

Pole  attachment  for  adjustable  saw 75 

Pruning  shears  (grape),  50  cents,  pruning  knife,  50  cents 1  00 

Pruning  shears,  "Buckeye" 50 

Grafting    chisel 50 

Mallet 15 

Budding  knives,  2  doz 3  60 

Paris  green,  copper  sulphate,  sulphur,  lime 2  00 

Resin,  beeswax,  tallow.     See  "Chemicals." 

Centrifuge  milk  tester,  8  bottles 8  00 

Milk  bottles  for  tester,  1  doz 1  50 

Cream  bottles,   Y2   doz 1  00 

Skimmed  milk  bottles,  %  doz 3  00 

Acid  measure 15 

Pipette  17.6  cc 20 

Quevenne    lactometer 50 

Hydrometer  jar.     See  "Elementary  Physics." 

Sulphuric  acid,  sp.  gr.  1.83,  27  lbs 7 2  40 

Corrosive  sublimate  tablets,  1  lb 1  25 

Soil    auger 2  00 

Iron  mortar  ( Y2  gal.)   and  pestle 1  00 

Sealing  jars,  "Lightning,"  quart,  1  doz 1  65 

Sealing  jars,  "Lightning,"  pint,  1  doz 1  50 

Farm   level 15  00 

Rod   5  00 

Gasoline  burner 2  75 

Soil  capillarity  tubes,  glass,  5  f  t.  x  1  *4  inches,  Y2  doz 3  00 

Drying  oven  100°  C,  crucibles,  desiccator,  slop  jars,  Bunsen  vapor 
lamp,  thermometers,  brass  tongs,  balance.  See  "Chemical  Ap- 
paratus." 

Percolators,  qt.,  2 1  00 

Small  tin  grocers'  scoop 10 

Cylindrical  graduates.     See  "Glassware." 

Coarse  balance  (grocers')  with  weights  Y2  oz.  to  4  lbs 3  00 

Small  granite  pans,  circular,  V2  doz 90 

Iron  pans  and  troughs  (at  tinners) 3  00 

Sand,  sawdust,  muslin,  cheesecloth,  mosquito  net,  cotton  thread ....  1  00 

Specie  jars.    See  "Biology." 

Shot,  spirit  level.     See  "Elementary  Physics." 

Sample  soil  28,  1  set 1 1  50 

Economic  seeds,  1  set 1  50 

Weed  seeds,  1  set 1  50 

Smooth  dinner  plates,  1  doz 1  20 


Educational  Agriculture.  59 

Vials,  2  drachms,  85  cents,  stoppers,  15  cents,  1  gross $1  00 

Brass  gauze  sieves,  5  sizes,  1  set ' 5  50 

Tripod  magnifiers,  1  doz.    See  "Biology." 

Flower  pots,  %  gal.,  with  saucers,  2  doz 1  70 

Steel  tape,  50  ft 2  50 

Muriate  of  potash,  acid  phosphate,  ground  rock  phosphate,  bone 

meal,    lime,    limestone 5  00 

Magnesium    sulphate,    potassium    sulphate,    ammonium    sulphate, 

ferric  chloride.     See  "Chemicals." 

Tools.     ($6.87). 

Hollow  handle  tool $1  12 

Vise,   small 75 

Hatchet    50 

Saw    1  30 

Brace  and  bits  1  00 

Square    30 

Combined  pliers  and  wire  cutters 85 

Pincers,   small    25 

Whetstone    45 

Iron  wire,  No.  24  and  No.  18,  1  lb  each 35 

In  the  selection  of  materials  for  laboratory  use  the  appropriate  ma- 
terials in  agriculture  will,  of  course,  be  such  as  represent  the  agricul- 
tural interests  of  the  locality.  It  is  apparent  to  any  one  that  a  practical 
course  demands  this.  But  in  the  teaching  of  the  fundamental  sciences 
a  change  from  former  methods  may  not  be  so  readily  acceded  to  by 
science  teachers.  The  ideal  herein  conceived  is,  that  since  the  best 
method  of  illustrating  any  unknown  fact  or  principle  is  by  means  of 
familiar  rather  than  unfamiliar  materials,  and  since  with  the  majority 
of  students,  familiar  materials  are  agricultural  materials,  economy  dic- 
tates the  use  of  what  the  rural  environment  affords  so  far  as  possible 
in  the  teaching  of  all  sciences,  and  no  science  should  be  attempted  that 
cannot  be  demonstrated  by  some  means.  Or,  stated  from  the  practical 
point  of  view,  since  the  science  of  agriculture  depends  upon  all  of  the 
fundamental  sciences,  the  only  way  to  put  agricultural  instruction  on 
a  safe,  rational  basis,  is  to  correlate  it  with  the  underlying  sciences  and 
teach  them  together,  without  attempting  to  draw  any  very  sharp  line 
to  indicate  when  we  pass  from  the  cultural  to  the  industrial  use. 

Where  agricultural  needs  are  made  the  sole  criteria  for  the  admission 
of  principles  or  materials  for  the  teaching  of  the  fundamental  sciences 
certain  portions  of  those  sciences  remain  incomplete.  With  more  ad- 
vanced students,  whose  interest  may  be  mainly  scientific,  other  things 
must  be  introduced  to  supplement  the  purely  agricultural.  Such  need 
should  be  less  frequent  during  the  first  half  of  the  high-school  course. 

Physics  is  a  science  which  has  developed  to  such  dimensions  by 
natural  growth  that  no  high  school  can  do  in  one  year  all  of  the  work 
outlined  in  the  average  text  and  which  is  recognized  as  secondary  in 
character.  It  has,  at  the  same  time,  become  more  quantitative,  involving 
application  of  the  mathematics  of  the  high  school,  thus  being  forced  into 
the  latter  part  of  the  course. 

Certain  elementary  phases  of  physics  are  essential  to  an  understanding 
of  the  other  sciences.  For  this  reason  elementary  physics  is  provided 
for  in  the  preceding  list  of  apparatus,  using  the  needs  of  physical  geog- 


60  Western  State  Normal. 

raphy  and  agriculture  as  criteria  of  what  to  admit  and  deferring  the 
remainder  of  the  subject  to  the  latter  part  of  the  course  in  mathematics. 
This  puts  the  subject  of  advanced  physics  outside  the  purposes  of  this 
treatment.  But  since,  in  a  consideration  of  the  laboratory,  it  is  ap- 
propriate to  allow  space  for  the  equipment  for  this  subject,  the  appended 
list  of  apparatus  is  given  to  indicate  what  the  subject  may  call  for  in 
the  smaller  schools.  It  is  given  with  the  understanding  that  the  expense, 
while  severely  minimized,  is  in  no  way  chargeable  to  the  purposes  of 
agriculture. 

Advanced  High-school  Physics.    ($73.13). 

Jolly  balance    $6  00 

Rotator 6  65 

Ring  chain  and  cylinder   85 

Acoustic  and  color  disk  3  00 

Dynamo  and  motor 3  35 

Tuning  fork;  A,  20  cents,  small  C,  20  cents 40 

Medium  C 75 

Sonometer   7  50 

Clock  spring 10 

Zinc  and  copper  strips   05 

Concave  and  convex  mirror,  75  mm 50 

Triangular  glass  prism,  6-in m   50 

Plane  mirror    25 

Six-inch  bar  magnets,  2 60 

Horseshoe  magnet,  4-in 20 

Dry  cells,  3    90 

Electro-magnet  1  50 

Demonstration  battery 1  00 

Copper  wire,  cotton  insulated,  2  oz.  No.  26 36 

1  oz.  No.  30....  27 

Dissectable  dynamo 2  50 

Gravity  cell,  crowfoot  Cu.  and  Zn 90 

OPTIONAL. 

Air  pump    $35  00 


Chapter  XIV. 

PLOTS  AND  GROUNDS. 

"By  every  legitimate  means  we  should  develop  and  fix  local  attach- 
ments. We  have  almost  come  to  be  a  nation  of  wanderers  and  shifters. 
We  are  in  danger  of  losing  some  of  our  affection  for  particular  pieces 
of  land." — Bailey  :   Training  of  Teachers  of  Agriculture,  p.  11. 

"In  past  conceptions  of  democracy  the  idea  of  rewards  has  had  no 
place." — Dr.  Aldrich  :   A  Redefinition  of  Democracy. 

In  presenting  the  following  plans  for  school  grounds  and  plots,  certain 
needs  and  conditions  of  general  application  are  taken  into  consideration. 

The  lack  of  attachment  to  particular  pieces  of  land  is  fatal  to  the  ideal- 
ization of  agriculture  as  a  mode  of  life.  The  lack  of  continuity  of  tenure 
is  a  serious  impairment  of  all  school  work,  and  will  especially  be  true  of  all 
agricultural  work.  The  most  vital  period  in  the  care  of  plots  comes  in 
the  ordinary  summer  vacation  period.  The  lack  of  respect  for  public 
property  is  characteristic  of  the  average  American,  and  often  amounts 
to  a  feeling  that  what  belongs  to  the  public  may  be  despoiled  with  im- 
punity by  any  member  of  the  public.  The  feeling  of  individual  ownership 
and  prospect  of  financial  reward  for  care  and  labor  bestowed  are  essen- 
tial factors  in  the  success  of  any  economic  enterprise. 

The  agriculturist  of  the  high  school  should  not  simply  be  an  employee 
of  the  community,  but  should  be  a  citizen,  and  thus  be  in  an  attitude  to 
both  give  and  receive  information  and  neighborly  assistance.  He  should 
be  provided  a  home  on  the  school  grounds,  with  sufficient  space  to  con- 
duct horticultural  work  profitably  during  the  summer  vacation,  the 
proceeds  to  be  his  own,  the  lessons  to  be  the  property  of  the  community, 
and  no  demonstration  to  be  considered  complete  until  its  ability  to  pro- 
duce a  profit  is  tested.  His  employment  should  be  by  the  year  and  his 
wages  in  twelve  monthly  payments.  He  should  be  held  for  vacation 
service  and  pay  rental  on  his  home.  His  private  grounds  should  be 
open  to  the  public  at  stated  hours  and  always  display  lessons  worthy  of 
their  attention,  while  the  line  marking  his  boundaries  should  be  respected 
at  all  times.  Such  grounds  afford  the  means  of  demonstrating  the  best 
horticultural  practices,  including  the  use  of  hotbeds  and  cold  frames, 
the  kitchen  garden,  small  fruit,  varietal  merits,  seed  selection,  decorative 
and  landscape  planting,  and  poultry  husbandry. 

School  gardens  belong  peculiarly  to  the  elementary  grades.  Where 
the  high  school  is  associated  with  the  elementary  grades,  the  agricul- 
turist may  be  called  upon  to  supervise  such  work  on  the  grounds.  No 
attempt  will  here  be  made  to  discuss  that  grade  of  work.  For  the  high- 
school  student,  work  of  a  similar  character  is  included  under  the  term 
"home  projects,"  where  it  will  be  found  discussed.     However,  room  for 

The  school  building  has  about  it  a  natural  environment.  It  ought  to  be 
in  a  garden,  and  the  children  from  the  garden  would  be  led  on  to  sur- 
rounding fields,  and  then  into  the  wider  country,  with  all  its  facts  and 
forces.— Dewey:     The  School  and  Society,  p.  89. 

(61) 


62 


Western  State  Normal. 


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-<hO*m 


The  order  of  succession  on  each  range  is  as  follows  :  First  year,  cowpeas  are 
sown  in  the  spring  and  disposed  of  either  by  harvesting,  as  indicated  by  the  word 
"off,"  or  plowed  "under."  This  is  done  in  time  to  prepare  the  range  for  wheat. 
With  the  wheat  is  sown  red  clover  or  alsike  and  in  the  spring  a  suitable  grass  seed. 
The  clover  and  grass  are  allowed  to  run  until  the  second  spring  after  the  wheat  is 
harvested.  (In  farm  practice  it  may  run  as  pasture  a  year  longer,  making  a  five- 
year  rotation.)  The  grass  is  turned  under  the  spring  of  the  corn  year.  After  har- 
vesting the  corn  the  mineral  fertilizer  is  applied,  as  shown  on  the  cowpea  range — 


Educational  Agriculture.  63 

some  form  of  gardening  may  be  allowed  out  of  grounds  not  otherwise 
needed,  to  be  intensively  cultivated  by  those  high-school  students  who 
cannot  be  provided  for  elsewhere,  and  each  should  be  held  accountable 
for  the  condition  of  his  allotment. 

The  remaining  work  consists  of  field  demonstrations  intended  to 
illustrate  the  class  work  or  to  influence  local  agricultural  practices.  Of 
the  two  series  here  provided,  the  lesser  will  be  considered  first. 

Series  II  will  include  desirable  introductions  new  to  the  locality,  and 
new  varieties  of  well-known  species.  It  should  include  demonstrations 
suited  to  the  coming  change  toward  more  intensive  cultivation,  such  as 
soiling  crops,  catch  crops  and  winter  cover  crops,  legumes,  forage  and 
grasses,  besides  the  cereals  and  fiber  crops.  This  plan  contemplates 
the  demonstrating  of  horticulture  and  fruit  husbandry  on  the  agricul- 
turist's private  plots.  It  will  be  seen  that  for  several  reasons  it  is 
impossible  to  indicate  very  accurately  how  much  land  will  be  needed 
for  this  series. 

Series  I,  rotations  and  fertilizers,  is  a  very  important  demonstration, 
becoming  more  valuable  with  age.  It  should  be  carefully  planned  and  the 
record  of  its  purposes  and  results  passed  to  and  made  a  charge  upon 
succeeding  agriculturists,  that  its  cumulative  value  may  not  be  impaired 
through  ignorance  or  carelessness.  It  consists  of  four  parallel  ranges 
meant  to  illustrate  simultaneously  the  four  annual  phases  of  a  four-year 
rotation  suitable  to  the  locality,  each  crop  holding  its  place  in  order  as 
they  pass  from  right  to  left,  as  shown  in  figure  7.  Each  range  consists 
of  twelve  plots,  planned  to  illustrate  need,  effect  and  methods  of  applica- 
tion of  fertilizers.  These  plots  have  the  same  arrangement  on  all  four 
of  the  parallel  ranges,  so  that  the  effect  of  a  similarity  of  treatment  on 
different  crops  may  be  observed  in  each  strip  of  four  plots  crossing  the 
ranges  at  right  angles.  The  corn  and  wheat  ranges  may  at  the  same 
time  be  used  as  variety  tests. 

The  ground  chosen  for  this  series  should  be  of  uniform  character,  so 
that  all  differences  in  growth  may  be  attributed  to  the  difference  in  treat- 
ment. A  check  plot  at  each  end  of  each  range  tends  to  betray  any  gen- 
eral lack  of  uniformity,  while  affording  a  basis  upon  which  to  figure  the 
effects  of  the  various  treatments. 

The  significance  of  the  five  important  factors,  humus,  lime,  nitrogen, 
phosphorus,  and  potassium,  is  demonstrated  in  this  series.  While  the 
immense  importance  of  barnyard  manure  may  seem  to  be  minimized,  it 

the  application  being  made  but  once  for  the  entire  rotation.  Follow  the  corn  by  a 
winter  cover  crop  of  rye,  to  be  turned  under  in  the  spring,  when  lime  is  applied  to 
the  right  half  of  each  range  and  cowpeas  again  sown.  This  application  of  fertilizers 
and  lime,  coming  between  the  corn  crop  and  the  cowpea  crop,  occurs  on  each  range 
but  once  in  four  years,  but  as  the  series  has  four  ranges,  each  showing  an  annual 
phase  of  the  rotation,  they  are  applied  on  one  range  each  year.  And  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  demonstration,  where  crops  permit,  they  are  applied  simultaneously  in 
fractional    portions   backward   from   the   one   on   which   full   amount   is   due,    thus : 

-i(  1L  2.f  J.  The  figure  necessarily  shows  the  crops  as  having  fixed  positions 
on  the  ranges,  but  it  should  be  understood  that  the  regular  succession  of  crops  will 
make  the  condition  represented  applicable  but  once  in  each  four  years. 

The  size  of  each  plot  of  series  I  is  one-eightieth  acre,  being  two  rods  long  and  one 
rod  wide,  with  space  between  plots  of  one-fifth  rod.  This  space  may  be  cropped  the 
same  as  the  rest  of  the  range  if  desired,  but  such  crops  should  be  removed  and  not 
allowed  to  confuse  results.  The  total  area  within  the  plots  is  three-fifths  of  an 
acre,  and  the  total  area,  including  plots,  boundary  strips  and  roads,  is  nine-tenths 
of  an  acre,  being  234.3  feet  long  and  168  feet  wide. 


64  Western  State  Normal. 

should  be  apparent  that,  containing,  as  it  does,  humus  and  the  three  es- 
sential elements  of  fertility,  it  can  never  be  used  as  an  accurate  test  of 
the  soil's  needs.  A  similar  difficulty  results  from  the  use  of  legumes  as  a 
source  of  nitrogen,  since  the  legume  also  supplies  humus,  which  in  turn 
may  render  available  the  insoluble  phosphates  of  the  soil.  To  make  the 
test  accurate,  therefore,  acid  phosphate  rather  than  the  insoluble  floats 
is  used  in  all  plots  requiring  phosphorus,  except  the  one  indicated  other- 
wise. To  further  obviate  these  difficulties  two  plots  are  added  to  the 
series — one  to  demonstrate  the  use  of  manure  and  the  other  to  demon- 
strate the  effect  of  a  nitrogen  fertilizer  that  does  not  involve  humus. 
Potassium  is  applied  in  the  form  of  the  muriate  of  potash,  and  nitrate  of 
soda  is  used  on  the  plot  where  humus  is  to  be  eliminated.  In  order  to  get 
usable  results  the  same  relative  amounts  of  the  different  forms  of  nitro- 
gen or  of  phosphorus  should  be  used  on  the  plots  to  be  compared,  the 
application  to  be  computed  on  the  basis  of  the  amount  subtracted  by  the 
harvesting  and  removal  of  a  maximum  crop  for  the  locality.  Each  plot 
has  an  application  of  lime  or  ground  limestone  on  its  right  half. 

This  treatment  will  be  seen  to  be  a  compromise  between  approved 
practice  and  accuracy  of  soil  testing,  and  is  believed  to  be  of  sufficient 
scope  to  answer  both  purposes.  Visible  results  during  the  growing  sea- 
son will  be  as  valuable  as  quantitative  results  made  after  harvest. 

The  habit  of  weighing,  measuring  and  testing  articles  of  commerce  is 
a  good  one  to  cultivate,  and  the  establishment  of  stock  scales  at  the  school 
grounds  may  be  made  a  means  not  only  of  studying  fattening  processes 
but  of  providing  practice  in  all  kinds  of  stock  judging  and  of  making  the 
course  more  practicable  for  girls.  And  it  will  be  the  means  of  bringing 
to  light  the  hidden  genius  of  the  stock  judge,  the  expert  guesser  of 
weight,  "mute,  inglorious"  though  he  may  otherwise  be. 

For  the  entire  purposes  of  the  school  ten  acres  should  provide  all  of 
the  necessary  space  for  building  site,  playgrounds,  athletic  fields,  stables, 
agriculturist's  cottage  and  private  grounds,  field  demonstration  plots, 
and,  possibly,  school  gardens  and  students'  projects. 

The  purpose  of  none  of  this  work  on  the  school  grounds  should  be  con- 
fused with  that  of  the  school  farm,  such  as  has  been  attempted  in  many 
places,  usually  without  success  for  lack  of  the  essential  elements  of  the 
responsibility  and  profits  of  the  work  being  with  the  worker,  the  student. 
The  school  here  provided  for  is  conceived  to  be  one  to  which  high-school 
boys  go  daily  from  their  farm  homes,  and  to  their  homes  they  are  ex- 
pected to  carry  their  lessons  for  application. 

In  the  division  of  expenses,  those  pertaining  to  the  agriculturist's 
grounds  should  be  borne  by  himself,  the  home  projects  by  the  students, 
and  the  others  by  the  school.  As  a  part  of  their  course,  students  should 
be  expected  to  contribute  their  services  free  at  any  place  that  the  agri- 
culturist may  reasonably  direct — a  matter  that  must  be  left  to  his  dis- 
cretion. 


Chapter  XV. 

AGRICULTURAL  LITERATURE. 

11  Of  making  many  books  there  is  no  end;  and  much  study  is  a  weari- 
ness of  flesh."— Eccles.  12:12. 

Nature  of  agricultural  literature. — Owing  to  the  fact  that  agricul- 
ture as  a  science  is  so  recent,  the  literature  of  the  subject  is  not  yet 
well  organized.  This  is  due  partly  to  the  very  wide  scope  of  the  sub- 
ject, the  tendency  toward  unsymmetrical  development  that  always  results 
from  rapid  growth,  the  desire  to  seem  busy  which  sometimes  prompts 
investigators  to  publish  half-baked  results,  the  irresponsible  publica- 
tion of  a  certain  class  of  farm  papers  for  popular  use,  and  the  false 
idea  that  prevails  that  what  the  schools  want  is  textbooks  on  the  art 
rather  than  the  science  of  agriculture.  But  as  the  temptation  to  pre- 
pare scientific  articles  minus  the  science,  merely  to  stimulate  and  appease 
a  popular  demand,  gives  way  to  more  correct  teachings,  from  the  chaos 
emerges  definite  form,  and  standards  are  set  up  by  which  the  value  of 
all  agricultural  literature  may  be  estimated. 

The  textbook. — One  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  which  the  in- 
troduction of  agriculture  into  the  courses  of  the  public  schools  may  be 
expected  to  make  to  the  cause  of  education  in  general  is  the  breaking 
down  of  the  formalism  which  has  always  been  the  bane  of  education,  and 
which  results  through  the  operation  of  natural  causes. 

This  great  danger  to  all  education  follows  so  closely  upon  the  heels 
of  this  promising  reform  that  in  many  places  it  has  gotten  ahead  of 
the  latter,  and  the  teacher,  impelled  by  a  desire  to  take  an  immediate 
advantage  of  the  popularity  of  the  cause,  and  guided  by  what  the 
biologist  might  call  a  "literary  thigmotaxis,"  which  prevents  his  resting 
«asy  until  he  is  settled  in  his  chair  behind  his  desk  with  an  "adopted" 
text  in  his  useless  hand,  from  which  he  is  teaching  all  of  the  coarse 
print  and  omitting  all  of  the  exercises  and  all  irrelevant-looking  sen- 
tences cast  in  the  imperative  or  interrogative  form — teaching  agricul- 

The  function  of  books  is  supplementary,  ...  a  means  of  seeing 
through  other  men  what  you  cannot  see  for  yourself;  they  (teachers  and 
parents)  are  eager  to  give  second-hand  facts  in  place  of  first-hand  facts. 

.  .  Not  perceiving  the  enormous  value  of  that  spontaneous  education 
which  goes  on  in  early  years — not  perceiving  that  a  child's  restless  obser- 
vation, instead  of  being  ignored  and  checked,  should  be  diligently  admin- 
istered to,  and  made  as  accurate  and  complete  as  possible;  they  insist  on 
occupying  its  eyes  and  thoughts  with  things  that  are,  for  the  time  being, 
incomprehensible  and  repugnant.— Spencer  :  Education,  Chap.  I.  "What 
Knowledge  is  Most  Worth?" 

So  long  have  we  taught  text-book  routine  that  we  do  not  seem  to 
think  that  there  may  be  other  and  better  means.  ...  I  believe  that  it 
is  possible  to  acquire  culture  at  the  same  time  that  we  acquire  power. 
.  .  .  Education  for  culture  alone  tends  to  isolate  the  individual;  educa- 
tion for  sympathy  with  one's  environment  tends  to  make  the  individual  an 
integral  part  of  the  activities  and  progress  of  his  time.— Bailey  :  The 
Nature-Study  Idea,  p.  63. 

5— ED.  AGR.  (65) 


66  Western  State  Normal. 

ture?  No,  teaching  lies — one  at  least,  which  is  that  "agriculture"  is  a 
book. 

Books  will  always  be  the  repository  of  knowledge,  and  the  textbook 
in  agriculture  may  have  a  place  in  the  high  school.  But  prior  to  the 
last  year  the  appropriate  text  should  be  a  manual  of  exercises  adapted, 
by  additions  and  subtractions,  to  suit  the  laboratory  and  local  conditions. 
And  such  assignments  as  may  be  advantageous  to  supplement  this 
method,  by  which  the  race  has  acquired  all  of  its  original  stock  of 
knowledge,  should  be  made  to  sources  as  near  this  original  source  as 
possible — agricultural  reports,  bulletins  and  standard  treatises.  The 
objection  to  the  average  text  during  these  years  is  that  it  will  not  only 
be  made  the  course  of  study,  but  the  source  of  information  as  well,  at 
the  time  when  the  student  should  be  making  his  own  text  in  the  form 
of  a  notebook  containing  the  record  of  observations  afforded  by  experi- 
ments, demonstrations  and  excursions. 

The  proposition  here  urged  is  that  the  seasonal  order  of  succession 
of  local  agricultural  interests,  and  not  the  textbook,  should  determine 
the  order  of  presentation  within  each  year  of  the  course,  and  if  this 
can  be  maintained  and  the  subject  matter  taken  first-hand  from  the 
field  and  laboratory  the  danger  of  the  text  is  successfully  met.  And 
the  ability  to  do  this  successfully  will  not  be  found  in  the  teacher  who 
relies  on  one  or  any  number  of  high-school  or  elementary  texts  for  his 
preparation.  In  the  last  year  of  the  course  a  suitable  text  may  con- 
tribute very  materially  to  the  synthetic  purposes  whereby  the  "science 
of  agriculture"  is  created  and  vocational  ideals  inculcated.  For  work 
previous  to  that  year  it  would  be  a  boon  if  there  were  worked  out  an 
adequate  set  of  agricultural  monographs  suitable  for  high-school  use, 
providing  an  elastic  system  adaptable  to  local  interests  and  the  seasonal 
order  of  presentation. 

The  farm  paper. — The  farm  paper  has  a  limited  place  in  the  agri- 
cultural literature  of  the  high  school.  Standing  in  a  class  by  itself, 
The  Breeders'  Gazette  has  a  wide  value  as  a  stock  paper  and  as  rep- 
resenting the  broader  agriculture  of  the  country,  and  is  the  last  journal 
which  any  enforced  economy  of  the  school  should  eliminate.  Conforming 
as  it  does  to  the  teachings  of  the  experiment  stations,  it  is  scientifically 
reliable  and  stands  for  applied  science  without  being  either  unscientific 
or  impractical.  Crops,  being  subject  more  to  environmental  conditions, 
are  usually  best  represented  by  papers  that  undertake  to  serve  a  more 
limited  constituency,  and  each  distinct  region  will  have  its  best  repre- 
sentative paper,  possibly  of  restricted  geographical  value,  though  that 
test  alone  would  be  a  very  inadequate  one.  Two  or  three  properly  se- 
lected papers  will  serve  the  needs  of  the  school  and  the  locality  better 
than  might  a  larger  number. 

It  is  hard,  and  in  the  history  of  the  race  a  late  change,  to  receive 
language  through  the  eye  which  reads  instead  of  through  the  ear  which 
hears.  .  .  .  The  printed  page  must  not  be  too  suddenly  or  too  early 
thrust  between  the  child  and  life. — Hall:    Adolescence,  vol.  II,  p.  461. 

With  a  distrust  of  "book  larnin'  "  that  has  become  proverbial,  it  is 
strange  that  it  has  been  allowed  to  dominate  the  school  curriculum  so 
completely. — Hodge:     Nature  Study  and  Life,  p.  22. 


Educational  Agriculture.  67 

The  farm  paper  is  of  value  to  the  school  for  other  reasons  than  those 
which  pertain  to  the  quantity  of  the  information  it  may  give.  The  pro- 
spective farmer  needs  lessons  on  the  function  and  possibilities  of  a  good 
journal,  and  an  early  and  continued  affiliation  with  one  has  a  value 
similar  to  the  value  of  a  lifelong  friend.  With  a  reliable  farm  paper 
in  the  hands  of  his  students,  the  instructor  will  feel  held  to  the  necessity 
of  keeping  his  pedagogical  feet  on  the  ground.  By  its  "answers  to  cor- 
respondents" it  will  indicate  the  nature  of  the  everyday  problems  of  the 
farmer.  And  its  weekly  change  of  subject  matter  will  be  a  valuable 
index  to  the  seasonal  order  of  class  topics. 

But  the  slavish  study  of  the  mass  of  practical  matter  which  such  a 
periodical  undertakes  to  set  before  practical  farmers  will  be  a  detriment 
to  the  student  training  for  that  profession.  On  analysis,  its  contents 
will  be  found  to  involve  but  few  scientific  principles  underlying  agri- 
cultural industry,  and  to  these  the  teacher  should  guide  more  directly 
through  the  agricultural  side  of  the  work  in  applied  science  as  indicated 
in  the  course  included  herein.  Such  rationalizing  principles  should  also 
give  the  student  an  ability  to  understand  agriculture  in  the  original  form 
in  which  the  investigator,  out  of  respect  for  his  work,  must  present  it, 
the  bulletin,  as  well  as  enable  him  to  detect  the  false  science  which  ap- 
pears in  irresponsible  farm  journals  and  more  responsible  sources.  Time 
enough  when  the  vocation  is  taken  up  after  school  days  are  over  to 
consider  the  many  practical  methods  and  facts  presented  by  the  farm 
paper  and  when,  if  the  reader  fails  to  see  what  he  wants,  he  has  only 
to  ask  for  it. 

Bulletins  and  government  reports. — Whatever  the  source  of  the  science 
or  the  method  of  acquiring  or  applying  it,  the  series  of  publications  by  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  known  as  Farmers'  Bulletins,, 
judging  by  the  very  evident  intention  of  its  editors,  is  to  be  made  the 
repository  of  everything  for  the  betterment  of  the  science  and  practices, 
of  rural  life.  While  innumerable  other  sources  of  information  are  avail- 
able to  the  student  or  investigator,  none  other  has  so  clearly  for  its  aim 
the  summarizing  of  everything  achieved  by  investigations  and  tested  by 
experience.  It  may  therefore  be  expected  to  satisfy  the  need  of  general 
practical  information  for  such  schools  as  the  one  herein  conceived,  sup- 
plementing the  regular  instruction  in  the  principles  of  agriculture  by 
means  of  demonstrations  and  reliable  texts  as  directed  by  a  teacher 
trained  for  the  work. 

For  general  agricultural  progress,  the  annual  report  of  the  Secretary 
of  Agriculture,  published  in  the  Yearbook  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, is  invaluable.    And  the  general  articles  of  the  Yearbook  contributed 

The  mere  giving  of  information  about  agricultural  objects  and  practices 
can  have  very  little  good  result  with  children.  .  .  .  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  no  country-life  teaching  will  be  so  narrow  as  to  put  only  technical 
farm  subjects  before  the  pupil.     .     .     . 

We  need  also  to  be  careful  not  to  introduce  subjects  merely  because 
practical  grown-up  farmers  think  that  the  subjects  are  useful  and  there- 
fore should  be  taught.  Farming  is  one  thing  and  teaching  is  another. 
What  appeals  to  the  man  may  not  appeal  to  the  child.  What  is  most 
useful  to  the  man  may  or  may  not  be  most  useful  in  training  the  mind  of 
a  pupil  in  school. — Bailey:    Training  for  Teachers  of  Agriculture,  p.  15. 


68 


Western  State  Normal. 


by  experts  and  well  illustrated  are  not  excelled  by  anything  in  the  best 
magazines,  while  the  regular  statistical  departments  furnish  a  wealth  of 
material  for  agricultural  geography,  arithmetic  and  general  knowledge. 

The  bulletins  of  the  state  experiment  stations,  which,  like  the  Farmers' 
Bulletins  and  the  Yearbook,  are  furnished  free  of  charge,  are  of  value  in 
giving  results  of  investigations  that  have  a  local  interest  in  the  state  of 
their  publication.  While  they  are  less  comprehensive  than  the  Farmers' 
Bulletins  in  the  variety  of  matters  presented,  their  lessons  are  more  con- 
crete, and,  for  schools,  their  method  of  investigation  often  worthy  of  study 
considered  merely  as  experiments. 

Such  publications  as  the  foregoing  should  constitute  the  principal 
portion  of  the  agricultural  library  in  every  high  school  supported  by  and 
for  an  agricultural  constituency.  Since  the  bound  volumes  of  the  Year- 
book and  the  text  and  reference  books  are  carefully  indexed,  they  require 
of  the  librarian  merely  room  and  protection.  But  the  one  whose  business 
it  is  to  receive  and  preserve  in  accessible  form  for  convenient  reference 
the  bulletins  and  other  miscellaneous  pamphlets  that  regularly  come  to  a 
library  will  need  the  experience  of  some  one  who  has  had  to  consider  this 


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The  material  used  in  making  a  box  consists  of  what  bookbinders  know  as  No.  20 
binding  board,  which  comes  in  sheets,  26  x  38  inches,  one  of  which  will  cut  four 
sheets  of  the  desired  size,  17%  x  10 y2  inches.  As  the  material  is  very  dense  and 
tough  it  should  be  cut  in  the  bindery  where  purchased.  Such  material  should  cost 
not  to  exceed  five  cents  per  box.  The  top  and  bottom  of  each  box  consist  of  poplar 
or  soft  pine  strips,  each  10y2  x2%  x  %  inches,  planed  and  sandpapered.  To  bend 
the  board  around  these  strips  it  should  be  cut  half  through   its  thickness  on  the 


Educational  Agriculture.  69 

problem,  and  assuming  that  the  reader  has  had  little,  if  any,  a  plan  will  be 
set  forth,  borrowed  from  various  sources,  modified  to  suit  the  needs  of  the 
case  and  tested  by  some  experience. 

Care  of  literature;  the  box. — In  seeking  for  a  basis  of  classification — 
a  general  law  running  throughout  the  subject — one  may  easily  overlook 
the  very  patent  fact  that  bulletins  are  fortunately  all  of  about  the  same 
dimensions.  And  this  physical  unity  is  the  best  one  to  consider  in  ar- 
ranging them  on  the  shelf.  For  this  purpose  boxes  should  be  provided  as 
shown  in  the  figures  on  preceding  page. 

Indexing. — Without  some  convenient  and  accurate  means  of  going  di- 
rect to  the  desired  information,  a  collection  of  four  or  five  hundred  agri- 
cultural bulletins  would  be  of  little  value  for  school  or  practical  use.  The 
valuable  fact  or  process  would  be  almost  as  inaccessible  when  needed  as 
the  proverbial  "needle  in  a  haystack." 

Since  the  average  bulletin  is  apt  to  treat  of  a  number  of  distinct  topics, 
and  therefore  any  considerable  number  of  them  cannot  be  grouped  topic- 
ally, the  only  systematic  plan  is  to  group  them  serially  with  a  separate 
index  of  some  kind,  under  the  appropriate  divisions  of  which  any  bulletin 
may  be  recorded  by  its  title  and  serial  number  as  many  times  as  it  in- 
cludes distinct  topics.  This  makes  necessary  the  adoption  of  a  system  of 
classifying  the  general  subject  "agriculture"  into  its  constituent  depart- 
ments or  subheads. 

The  Dewey  system  of  classification  is  comprehensive  enough  to  in- 
clude all  knowledge,  but  its  extension  for  agricultural  purposes  would 
necessarily  dissect  and  distribute  the  subject  matter  on  its  scientific 
rather  than  on  its  economic  aspect  and  thus,  it  is  feared,  work  at  cross- 
purposes  to  the  establishment  of  vocational  ideals.  And  because  this  sub- 
ject, as  developed,  is  inevitably  tending  to  include  not  simply  farming  but 
all  phases  of  rural  mechanics,  industrial  processes,  hygiene,  and  even  rural 
society  and  education,  in  addition  to  all  of  the  fundamental  sciences,  the 
literature  is  too  involved  to  submit  to  a  purely  scientific  dissection  and 
classification.  Therefore  it  cannot  be  made  to  fit  in  with  any  already 
established  order  of  knowledge,  but  demands  a  complete  separate  system 
of  classification  as  comprehensive  as  country  life  itself. 

parallel  lines  2*4  inches  apart,  shown  running  across  the  center  of  each  hoard.  The 
board  is  bent  with  the  cut  side  out  and  secured  to  the  strips  with  small  %-inch 
wire  nails  with  flat  heads.  The  gaping  wounds  at  the  corners  of  the  box  are  healed 
by  strips  of  dark  passe  partout.  Labels  for  the  general  and  serial  titles  may  be 
typewritten  on  light-weight  cardboard,  using  different  shades  for  different  series  of 
the  latter.     The  bottom  label — the  box  number — is  cut  from  a  calendar  page. 

Such  a  box  when  completed  will  hold  thirty  Farmers'  Bulletins,  and  this  size 
will  be  found  a  good  compromise  of  economy,  convenience  and  taste.  The  bulletins, 
arranged  in  serial  order,  are  wrapped  over  sides  and  loose  edges  with  a  piece  of 
manila  before  shoving  into  the  box. 

A  system  of  classification  of  agricultural  literature  has  been  developed  in  the 
United  States  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  under  conditions  favorable  to  the 
present  and  prospective  needs  of  agriculture.  This  office  has  been  compelled  for  the 
past  twenty  years  to  consider  for  its  own  uses  just  the  problem  here  discussed,  and 
the  result  is  a  decimal  system  of  classification  under  thirteen  heads,  instead  of  the 
nine  which  the  Dewey  system  requires.  The  system  is  used  m  all  public  libraries 
where  bulletins  are  preserved.  A  key  to  the  system  is  issued  as  circular  iso.  16, 
Office  of  Experiment  Stations.  The  accompanying  key  is  condensed  to  about  one- 
sixth  the  original  length,  in  which  form  the  writer  uses  and  recommends  it  for  nign 
schools.  The  changes  from  the  original  consist  of  substitution  of  Agricultural 
Education"  for  "12,  Statistics  of  the  Stations,"  and  the  development  of  16,  Mis- 
cellaneous," into  "Agricultural  Economics,"  the  omission  of  all  fractiona i  sub- 
divisions  under  all  integral  headings  excepting  Nos.  5,  6  and   i   and  a  general  abbre- 


70  Western  State  Normal. 

viation  of  the  latter.  Necessarily  in  abbreviating  many  fractions  were  dropped, 
their  subject  heads  being  thrown  back  into  the  next  preceding  number.  Thus  5.22, 
as  shown  here  comprises  all  included  under  5.22,  5.23,  5.24  and  5.25  of  the  complete 
system.  In  deciding  on  the  elimination  of  certain  numbers  and  the  incorporation  of 
their  contents  under  other  numbers  the  following  rules  were  regarded  :  only  adjacent 
groups  were  combined;  only  closely  related  subjects  were  combined;  the  amount  of 
literature  on  a  subject  partly  determined  the  practicability  of  combining  it  with 
another — the  less  the  amount  the  better  the  reason  for  combining.  A  careful  con- 
sideration of  all  of  the  literature  showed  the  necessity  of  interpolating  in  a  few 
cases,  as  5.01  and  5.18,  which  do  not  appear  in  the  original  system.  With  these 
alterations  the  original  plan  was  preserved,  so  that  familiarity  with  one  is  of  value 
in  using  either. 

Chart  V. 
Condensed  Key  to  Index  of  Agricultural  Bulletins  and  Circulars. 

pages  space. 

1.  General  Sciences   1 

2.  Air  and  Water;  purity  1 

3.  Soils;  composition,  classification,  tillage,  improvement 4 

4.  Fertilizers  ;  sources,  composition,  use,  experiments 7 

5.01    Plants;  physiology,  general,  medicinal,  improvement 2 

.14  Field  crops;  Commercial;  cereals,  fibers,  sugar,  tobacco  ...  8 

.18                   Secondary;  grass,  hay,  forage,  silage  catch 6 

.21           Horticulture;  vegetables,  melons  7 

.22                    Fruit,  nuts    7 

.26                    Flowers;   greenhouses,  landscape    2 

.3             Forestry    2 

.4             Seeds    5 

.5             Weeds    2 

.6             Diseases ;  remedies 5 

6.1      Foods;  composition,  nutritive  value  8 

.3             Preparation,  use,  accessories,  beverages,  adulteration   5 

.7             Preservation    4 

7.1      Animals;  physiology,  general,  wild,  improvement 2 

.3             Production;  stock,  fowls,  fish,  invertebrates,  rations 11 

.4             Diseases;    veterinary    4 

8.  Entomology;  beneficial,  injurious,  repression   7 

9.  Dairying  ;  milk  and  its  products  4 

10.  Technology;  manufacturing  (not  farm  processes)    2 

11.  Agricultural  Engineering;  materials,  fuel,  power,  irrigation, 

drainage,  implements,  devices,  roads,  bridges,  fences, 
buildings    6 

12.  Agricultural  Education  ;  courses,  methods,  equipment 3 

13.  Economics;    general   statistics,   rural,   home,   hygienic,   social, 

comparative   agriculture    4 


Educational  Agriculture. 


71 


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4     Fertilizers ;  Sources,  composition, use, experiments 


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Fig.  9. 


In  application  of  the  system,  the  bulletin  or  other  unindexed  pamphlet  is  scanned 
and  on  the  front  cover  are  written  Arabic  numerals  corresponding  to  such  of  the 
twenty-six  topics  of  the  key  as  are  found  treated  inside.  Thus  Farmers'  Bulletin 
129,  "Sweet  Potatoes,"  should  be  labeled  5.21,  5.6,  6.1,  6.3  and  8,  because,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  subject  indicated  in  its  title,  it  treats  of  plant  diseases,  nutritive  value, 
preparation  and  use,  and  injurious  insects. 

The  index  shown  in  figure  9  is  made  of  a  well-bound  blank  book  7^  x  9^ 
inches,  containing  120  pages  with  twenty-five  lines  to  the  page,  and  with  the" 
twenty-six  subject  headings  so  entered  as  to  divide  the  contents  into  as  many  parts, 
each  proportional  in  space  to  the  number  of  entries  that  are,  to  be  made  under  it. 
Taking  the  bulletins  in  serial  order,  each  title  and  serial  number  should  be  entered 
under  all  the  subject  headings  treated  in  it,  as  indicated  on  the  cover.  A  sample 
page  of  the  index  is  shown,  which  also  shows  the  numerical  marginal  labels.  With 
the  accompanying  key  pasted  inside  the  front  cover,  on  opening  the  index  both  key 
and  the  marginal  labels  will  be  exposed  to  view.  It  will'  be  noted  that  only  integers 
are  shown  on  the  marginal  thumb  labels,  such  mixed  numerals  as  5.21  coming 
between  the  5  and  6  labels.  This  gives  thirteen  marginal  numbers,  though  there 
are  twenty-six  subdivisions  of  the  index.  Figure  9  shows  how  to  cut  the  leaf 
margins  and  where  to  paste  the  numerals,  which  are  cut  from  a  calendar  leaf. 

Owing  to  the  overlapping  of  such  subjects  .as  "field  crops"  and  "horticulture,"  it 
may  be  necessary  to  index  the  same  matter  under  two  subject  headings.  In  case  of 
doubt  a  safe  rule  for  the  inexperienced  is  to  make  the  entry  under  these  several 
probable  headings. 

A  pigeonhole  card-index  system  has  been  used  by  the  writer,  and,  while  more 
elastic  than  the  blank-book  method,  on  the  whole  is  decidedly  less  desirable,  pro- 
vided the  book  index  be  sufficiently  large  and  the  space  equitably  apportioned  under 
the  several  heads.  Experience  has  shown  that  the  book  described  is  ample  for  the 
purpose  if  it  be  apportioned  as  indicated  on  the  right-hand  margin  of  the  key.  This 
apportionment  is  based  on  the  first  300  numbers  of  the  Farmers'  Bulletins.  After 
one  series  of  bulletins  has  been  indexed  down  to  some  convenient  recent  date  others 
in  turn  are  entered  until  every  pamphlet  worth  the  space  is  recorded  and  boxed. 


72 


Western  State  Normal. 


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Fig.  10. 

The  case. — Having  been  properly  indexed  and  boxed,  a  home  for  this  literature 
is  next  to  be  provided.  The  accompanying  illustration  (fig.  10)  shows  a  case  suffi- 
cient for  the  agricultural  and  science  library  and  museum.  It  can  be  made  of  pine 
without  doors  for  nine  or  ten  dollars  and  of  oak  for  about  eleven  dollars.  Doors  as 
shown,  with  glass  panels,  double  the  cost.  The  writer  has  had  materials  for  such  a 
case  made  at  a  planing  mill  without  mortising  and  with  tongue  and  groove  (ceiling) 
back  and  shipped  to  destination,  where  it  was  easily  set  up  and  stained  by  pupils 
of  a  little  manual  skill. 

This  case  provides  ample  room  for  the  boxes  on  one  shelf,  leaving  the  bottom 
shelf  for  an  agricultural  museum  of  minerals,  soils,  fertilizers,  feeds,  seeds, 
herbarium,  and  insects.  The  top  shelf  is  for  the  accompanying  list  of  recom- 
mended agricultural  reference  books  and  the  second  shelf  for  yearbooks  and  reports. 
The  index  to  the  bulletins  should  be  kept  in  the  shelf  with  them  and  contain  a 
record  of  all  the  literature  on  that  shelf.  Bound  volumes  having  indexes  should  not 
be  indexed  in  this  system. 

Assignments  on  agricultural  topics  may  be  made  by  the  teacher  and  the  index 
should  enable  the  pupils  to  find  the  latest  and  most  practical  information  on  the 
subject.  A  blank  card  should  be  inserted  in  each  box  on  which  to  record  names  and 
dates  of  loaning  and  returning.  Whatever  such  a  collection  properly  indexed  may 
lack  of  being  a  complete  encyclopedia  of  agricultural  science  and  practice  is  a  defect 
that  time  will  make  good. 


Educational  Agriculture.  i  /f8 


LIST  OF  BOOKS  SUITABLE  FOR  A  HIGH-SCHOOL 
AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARY. 


Hemenway:    School  Gardens. 
Davis:    Rural  School  Agriculture. 
Warren:    Elements  of  Agriculture. 
Barto:    Secondary  School  Agriculture. 
Osterhout:    Experiments  with  Plants. 
King:    The  Soil. 

Physics  of  Agriculture. 
Irrigation  and  Drainage. 
Eliot:    Engineering  for  Land  Drainage. 
Warington:    Physical  Properties  of  the  Soil. 
Hall:    The  Soil. 
Stockb ridge:    Rocks  and  Soils. 

Hopkins:    Soil  Fertility  and  Permanent  Agriculture. 
Johnson:    How  Crops  Grow. 
How  Crops  Feed. 
Voorhees :    Fertilizers. 
Roberts :    The  Fertility  of  the  Land. 
Vivian:    Principles  of  Soil  Fertility. 
Hilgard :    Soils. 

De  Condolle :    Origin  of  Cultivated  Plants. 
Hunt:    The  Cereals  in  America. 

Forage  and  Fiber  Crops  in  America. 
Spillman:    Farm  Grasses  in  the  United  States. 
Myrick:    The  Book  of  Corn. 
Fraser:    The  Potato. 
Bailey:    Principles  of  Fruit  Growing. 

The  Nursery  Book. 

The  Pruning  Book. 

Garden  Making. 

Horticulturists'  Rule  Book. 
Craig:    Judging  Live  Stock. 
Plumb:    Types  and  Breeds  of  Farm  Animals. 
Davenport:    Principles  of  Breeding. 
Henry:    Feeds  and  Feeding. 
Smith:    Profitable  Feeding. 
Van  Norman:    First  Lessons  in  Dairying. 
Wing:    Milk  and  its  Products. 
Conn:    Germ  Life  in  the  Soil. 

Bacteria,  Yeasts,  and  Molds  in  the  Home. 
Bashore:    Sanitation  of  the  Country  House. 
Fuertes:    Water  and  Public  Health. 
Snyder:    The  Chemistry  of  Plant  and  Animal  Life. 
Lipman:    Bacteria  in  Relation  to  Country  Life. 
Sanderson:    Insects  Injurious  to  Staple  Crops. 
Insects  Injurious  to  Garden  Crops. 


i  -  i  Western  State  Normal. 

Sanderson:   Insects  Injurious  to  Fruits. 

Davidson  and  Chase:    Farm  Machinery  and  Farm  Motors. 

Wing:    Farm  Dwellings. 

Roberts:    The  Farmstead. 

Waugh:    Landscape  Gardening. 

Van  Rensaeller:    Art  Out  of  Doors. 

Bailey:    Cyclopedia  of  Agriculture  (four  volumes). 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE0NTH_T4ain 

AN  INITIAL  FIN^n*.  „„ 


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